Rutgers Grad Fights To Free His Dad: ‘He Carried A Pen, Not A Weapon’

The push to free an internationally known scholar and former New Jersey resident who is being held as a “political prisoner” in Azerbaijan is approaching the 1,000-day threshold, his family says – but they’re not giving up.

Above all else, Gubad Ibadoghlu is a teacher, according to his son, Emin Bayramli, a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

It isn’t just his profession: it’s who he is in his bones, Bayramli told Patch.

“His own father was a teacher,” Bayramli explained. “He grew up understanding that the greatest thing a person can do is stand in front of others and give them knowledge, give them tools, give them a future. That calling led him all the way to Rutgers University, where he built a life around exactly that.”

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 in 2023. But that July, he was arrested in Azerbaijan along with his wife, Irada Bayramova.

A court ordered that Ibadoghlu be detained while awaiting trial. The professor-activist was facing a potential prison sentence of 12 years for counterfeiting charges that he denies he is responsible for.

While incarcerated, Ibadoghlu – who has diabetes as well as heart and kidney problems – was allegedly denied proper medical care and treated harshly, including sleep deprivation, his family says.

After nine months in prison, Ibadoghlu was transferred to house arrest following pressure from the U.S. State Department, where he remains in “very critical health,” his family says.

Since his arrest, several human rights advocacy groups, elected officials and government bodies around the world have demanded 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.

A resolution urging the “immediate release” of the embattled scholar has been launched in the U.S. House of Representatives, where it has gained the signatures of several Congress members from New Jersey, including Herbert Conaway Jr., Josh Gottheimer, Tom Kean Jr., LaMonica McIver, Robert Menendez Jr., Donald Norcross, Frank Pallone, Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew. Gov. Mikie Sherrill – who formerly served as a congresswoman in the 11^th district – also signed as a co-sponsor.

‘HE CARRIED A PEN, NOT A WEAPON’

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.

On Friday, Bayramli gave Patch an update on his father’s condition – which is deteriorating, he says.

“He has diabetes, heart disease, serious chronic conditions that require real medical attention,” Bayramli said. “But even that — something as simple and basic as being allowed to go to a hospital — has been denied to him.”

“My father spoke the truth about corruption,” Bayramli said. “He carried a pen, not a weapon. He was a Fulbright scholar, an economist, a professor. He just wanted to teach.”

When asked how his father’s imprisonment has impacted him, Bayramli replied that 1,000 days is not an “abstract number” – it has been three years of his life.

“And I know exactly when it started — July 2023, right as I was finishing my junior year at Rutgers,” he said.

“I spent a lot of time with my father during those years,” Bayramli recalled. “We used to walk from Highland Park across the bridge into New Brunswick, onto campus. Sometimes I would skateboard while he walked alongside me. Those were our moments. Nobody thinks about those moments until they are gone.”

“My parents are two people who gave up everything for their children,” he continued. “Everything. I do not say that lightly. When I think about what they sacrificed so that we could have a better life, and then I think about where my father is today — it puts things in a very sharp perspective.”

A thousand days? It’s a long time, and it “saddens him deeply,” Bayramli told Patch.

“But sadness is not what this moment calls for,” he added. “What it calls for is clarity and purpose. My father does not need my tears. He needs results. And that is what I am focused on — getting him back to his family, back to his work, back to where he belongs.”

“That is the mission … and it is not finished yet,” Bayramli said.

Another of Ibadoghlu’s children spoke about the arrest and subsequent treatment of the detained scholar in 2024 (watch the video below, via Amnesty International).

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about advertising on Patch here. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.