‘Release My Dad’: Rutgers Student Says Father Is Dying In Azerbaijan

NEW JERSEY — An internationally known scholar and former New Jersey resident is slowly dying as he languishes as a “political prisoner” in an Azerbaijani prison, his son says.

Gubad Ibadoghlu has now been held in pretrial detention for more than 100 days since his arrest earlier this year. And according to his son, Emin Bayramli – a statistics and economics student at Rutgers University – his father’s health has plunged to a crisis level as he awaits his day in court in Azerbaijan.

Ibadoghlu has made a name for himself as a scholar and a political activist, counting Rutgers as one of many universities around the world that he’s spoken or taught at over the past few decades. The father of three previously lived in Princeton and Highland Park for six years, and served as a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton and a visiting professor at Rutgers.

Ibadoghlu – the chair of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement – has been a research fellow at the London School of Economics since 2021. He was set to begin a new teaching job at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany this year. But in July, he was arrested in Azerbaijan along with his wife, Irada Bayramova.

A court ordered that Ibadoghlu be detained for three months and 26 days while awaiting trial.

Amnesty International offers the following background about the case:

“Gubad Ibadoghlu fled Azerbaijan in 2017 but returned in 2023. On July 23, he was arbitrarily detained along with his wife, Irada Bayramova, (who was later released) as they were driving to meet youth activists from the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement. According to the couple’s daughter, 20 plain-clothed police officers rammed their car, physically assaulted them, forced them into separate vehicles and then placed them in separate cells. The police officers never provided them with a reason for the arrest.”

The professor-activist is now facing a potential prison sentence of 12 years for counterfeiting charges that he denies he is responsible for.

Since his arrest, several human rights advocacy groups, elected officials and government bodies around the world have called for Ibadoghlu’s release, claiming that the incident was politically motivated.

Human Rights Watch blasted the accusations in a detailed case background published shortly after his arrest.

“The authorities should immediately free him and drop the spurious charges,” said Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“While he remains in custody, they should provide him access to his medications and ensure the highest possible standard of care,” Gogia added.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey have reached across the political aisle to advocate on Ibadoghlu’s behalf, saying that the “vocal critic of the current government” has worked to increase transparency and hold leaders to account in Azerbaijan.

“Dr. Ibadoghlu needs immediate medical attention,” Smith urged in August. “If he dies while being unjustly held in prison or if his health is permanently damaged, [Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev] will bear full responsibility.”

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has also expressed concern for Ibadoghlu’s declining health, advocating on social media that the “unjustly jailed” scholar be released.

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‘MY FATHER IS DYING’

Ibadoghlu – who has diabetes as well as heart and kidney problems – is in dire straits, his son said Monday.

“His health has been deteriorating rapidly since he was unjustly detained, especially in the past few days, and he has been denied medical care, despite his critical condition,” Bayramli told Patch, noting that his father recently had heart surgery.

“The Medical General Office of the Ministry of Justice was called to the Baku Detention Center,” Bayramli posted on social media last week.

“My father is dying there,” he wrote. “His blood sugar level is 20 mmol/l, and he has dysfunction in his left heart aorta expansion. He has lost weight. He is unable to move out of the bed. My father won't survive longer and gets no help.”

Ibadoghlu told his family that he has not received a medical examination since early August, the results of which have been withheld. The Red Cross has been barred from assessing his medical condition, his family added.

Ibadoghlu has run out of the prescription pills for insulin he needs, and was forced to switch to insulin injections, his family added.

In the meanwhile, Bayramli continues to push for his father’s release, accusing prison guards of continuously exposing him to harsh, blinding lights throughout the day – deliberately disorienting him and depriving him of sleep. They’ve even confiscated his glasses in an attempt to keep him from being able to read reports about his case in the media or messages from his family, he said.

“The reason my father posed such a significant threat to Azerbaijan's corrupt elite was his relentless pursuit of their ill-gotten wealth,” Bayramli alleges. “During his time at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he meticulously documented a vast scheme orchestrated by Azerbaijan's elite, including Aliyev's own offspring, to hide their stolen riches in foreign properties and assets.”

“Thanks to his diligent work, U.K. authorities initiated the seizure of these assets and commenced a crackdown on this rampant corruption,” Bayramli continued. “In a twisted turn of events, Azerbaijan's government now falsely accuses my father of financial misconduct and counterfeiting, among other blatantly fabricated charges.”

Ibadoghlu’s imprisonment is not an isolated incident, his son argues; it’s part of a larger crackdown on civil society and dissent in Azerbaijan that has included the arrest and harassment of other political dissidents, journalists and activists.

Bayramli said more information about his father’s imprisonment can be found online at a website that calls for his release.

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