Anar Mammadli, human rights defender and head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, was sentenced to 13 years in prison after a trial whose fairness is seriously questioned.

Omissions

• The sentencing took place on 7 September 2026, approximately one month before the session date (2026-10-07), so the MEP could have known about it.
• Mammadli had previously been imprisoned (2013–2014) and received the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize in 2014 while in detention; the current 13-year sentence concerns new charges (illegal entrepreneurship and related counts).
• No primary official source (the court verdict itself) was located; confirmation relies on multiple independent human rights organisations and news outlets reporting on the same court decision.

Sources

• SecondaryFIDH (International Federation for Human Rights)On 7 September 2026, the Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced Mr Anar Mammadli to 13 years in prison and disqualified him from holding certain [positions]
• SecondaryHuman Rights WatchA court in Azerbaijan on September 7 sentenced the prominent human rights defender and election monitor Anar Mammadli to 13 years in prison... While imprisoned, Mammadli received the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2014.
• SecondaryFront Line DefendersOn 7 September 2026, the Court found Anar Mammadli guilty of illegal entrepreneurship resulting in especially large-scale income (under article 192.3.2 of the [Criminal Code])... sentenced [him] to 13 years in prison
• SecondaryOC MediaOn 7 September, Anar Mammadli, head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.