Gubad was crushed and jailed for criticising fossil fuels in his nation. It's now internet hosting COP29

In July final yr, Azerbaijani educational Gubad Ibadoghlu had a life-altering expertise.

The 53-year-old economics professor was travelling together with his spouse Irada Bayramova to go to his sick mom within the capital Baku once they have been violently ambushed.

The couple’s automobile was rammed from each side by 4 unmarked autos, bringing them to a cease earlier than round 20 plain-clothed cops emerged and compelled the pair into separate autos.

Baryamova was crushed and detained by the officers for a number of hours earlier than being launched.

The Narimanov District Courtroom in Azerbaijan transferred Gubad Ibadoglu (left, together with his mom) to deal with arrest after worldwide strain. Credit score: Aziz Karimov/Getty Pictures

She sustained a critical head harm that has completely broken the vestibular nerves on the best aspect of her mind, primarily accountable for steadiness and eye actions.

In consequence, Baryamova has misplaced 30 per cent of her mind perform in that space and might now not stabilise herself when strolling.

Ibadoghlu was additionally badly crushed by the officers and suffered spinal wire harm for which he was denied medical therapy.

To an outsider, Ibadoghlu’s assault and subsequent arrest could appear arbitrary — it is something however.

False accusations

The London Faculty of Economics professor has spent his 25-year profession researching and exposing corruption in Azerbaijan’s fossil gas trade, a extremely profitable sector for the small authoritarian petrostate.

Baku is the positioning of the world’s first-ever oil fields, established in 1846, and this week has turn out to be host to the United Nations’ .

Azerbaijan was appointed host by the UN in December 2023 after Russia vetoed the overwhelming majority of different Japanese European nations — the group from which the host nation was scheduled to be drawn — on the idea of their condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With solely Armenia and Azerbaijan remaining in rivalry, the previous was in the end chosen after Russia brokered a deal between the 2 nations, which have been embroiled in a decades-long battle.

Green field with a sign reading COP29 Baku Azerbaijan in front of city skyline.

COP29 host Azerbaijan is below scrutiny. Credit score: Aziz Karimov/Getty Pictures

However to the worldwide neighborhood, Azerbaijan stays an odd selection of host for the local weather talks. Its economic system is closely reliant on oil and pure fuel exports, which make up round 90 per cent of all exports and 64 per cent of presidency income.

On the opening of the convention on Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev addressed delegates, saying oil and fuel have been a “reward from God”.

His authorities has additionally come below fireplace for attempting to hide plans to develop fossil gas manufacturing , together with crackdowns on anti-corruption advocates resembling Ibadoghlu.

The outstanding educational and critic of the nation’s oil and fuel trade has been accused by authorities of manufacturing, buying, or promoting counterfeit cash as half of a bigger organisation.

Most observers view Ibadoghlu’s expenses as politically fabricated to silence his criticisms of the regime.

Following his arrest in July 2023, Ibadoghlu was imprisoned at an unknown detention facility in Azerbaijan, together with tons of of different political prisoners. He was held there for almost 500 days with out trial and denied entry to medical help earlier than being transferred to deal with arrest in April.

He suffers from a number of well being circumstances, together with diabetes and a swollen coronary heart aorta, which if left untreated may very well be life-threatening.

Talking from Sweden, members of his household advised SBS Information Ibadoghlu continues to be being denied entry to the surgical procedure he wants.

Zhala Baryamova, a human rights lawyer and one among Ibadoghlu’s three youngsters, says their household “are scared for his [Ibadoghlu’s] life”.

“[We] are scared that at this price we’ll by no means have the ability to see him alive.

I’m not solely shedding a father however my greatest pal and hero.

Crackdown on civil society and media

Earlier than his arrest, Ibadoghlu was engaged on analysis to reveal how Azerbaijan has reportedly been , bypassing sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Three people sit smiling around a table inside.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) met Ilham Aliyev (proper) in August 2024 to debate the joint manufacturing of oil tankers between Russia and Azerbaijan. Supply: AFP / Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Getty Pictures

Along with his trial postponed till after the COP29 convention, Ibadoghlu faces as much as 17 years in jail.

Zhala Baryamova says their household has additionally been focused from overseas.

“My private photos [have been shared] on the web [and] I used to be being adopted in Stockholm,” Baryamova says.

Each week, there are numerous movies and information about our household. [They spread] smear campaigns and goal us.

“My little brother Emin Bayramli was sharing a room with different American college students in New Jersey, US. His room, and solely his room was destroyed … and this summer time his tackle was doxed, and in each circumstances, the FBI needed to safe him earlier than beginning an investigation.”

As COP29 will get underway this week, authorities within the Central Asian nation have intensified their crackdown on authorities opposition and unbiased media.

A by corruption watchdog Transparency Worldwide labels the dearth of strong anti-corruption measures in Azerbaijan as a “critical oversight” within the planning of COP29, which threatens the integrity of the convention.

The report highlights dangers posed by fossil gas corporations and corrupt leaders who could search to make use of the convention for their very own enrichment.

Police arrest elderly woman as crowd films

Law enforcement officials detain an activist at a rally by the Fashionable Entrance celebration in Baku in 2022. A complete of 177 activists have been detained earlier than and in the course of the motion. Credit score: Aziz Karimov/Getty Pictures

Transparency Worldwide Australia CEO Clancy Moore advised SBS Information that since Azerbaijan was appointed as host of the summit, arrests of civil society and media employees have skyrocketed.

“[The crackdown] impacts democratic discourse and the best to protest,” says Moore.

“It additionally threatens human rights advocacy; it limits accountability and other people talking out and in addition promotes a tradition of impunity, [so] that authorities and authorities can arrest individuals with none penalties and sometimes with out correct trials or correct judicial processes.”

Person holds up sign that reads "Journalism is a crime in Azerbaijan"

Feminist activists protested in Baku earlier this yr, demanding the discharge of journalists Sevinj Vagifgizi, Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova from investigative media outlet Abzas Media. Credit score: Aziz Karimov/Getty Pictures

Moore says Azerbaijan arrested a minimum of 25 journalists and lecturers within the time between being introduced because the COP29 host in December 2023 and June 2024.

A report launched in September by human rights mission the Anar Mammadli Marketing campaign places the variety of recognized political prisoners in Azerbaijan at 319, including that 226 of these have been arrested inside the final yr and a half.

An authoritarian household

Azerbaijan ranks 154 out of the 180 international locations on Transparency Worldwide’s Corruption Perceptions Index, making it probably the most authoritarian state to host the local weather summit to this point.

President Ilham Aliyev has maintained a robust grip on the nation since taking on from his father, Heydar Aliyev, in 2003.

His father was put in as president in 1993 following a army coup, which introduced the nation’s transient post-Soviet democratic interval after 1991 to an finish.

Aliyev established authoritarian rule throughout his decade in energy — a management type continued by his son and successor Ilham Aliyev.

Police and soldiers stand over a man while swinging batons.

Troopers beat a supporter of the opposing Musavat celebration throughout riots in Baku following the 2003 election, which was extensively anticipated to lead to a switch of energy from father to son. Credit score: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Pictures

Ilham Aliyev has been in comparison with a mafia crime boss in US diplomatic cables and in 2012 was awarded the first-ever Organized Crime and Corruption Particular person of the 12 months by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture.

The president’s energy extends to his rapid household additionally: His spouse, Mehriban Aliyeva, is the Azerbaijain’s vice chairman.

Aliyev’s son, Heydar Aliyev Jr., owned 9 waterfront mansions abroad by the point he was 12 years outdated.

His daughters Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva personal Azerfon, one of many largest telecommunications corporations in Azerbaijan. In addition they personal PASHA Holdings, a significant conglomerate that constructed the 4 Seasons lodge in Azerbaijan and receives substantial authorities contracts throughout completely different sectors.

Four people look over guard rails at racing event.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva and his son Haydar Aliyev attend the official opening ceremony of the 2016 Formulation One Grand Prix of Europe in Baku. Supply: Anadolu / Anadolu/Getty Pictures

PASHA Holdings is among the key COP29 companions, nevertheless it is not the one associate owned by the Aliyev household. Azercell, one other massive telecommunications firm in Azerbaijan can be a convention associate and is owned by the Aliyevs, via offshore corporations.

The Aliyev sisters even have a majority stake in a conglomerate that owns GILTEX, COP29’s textile associate and the president’s youngest daughter, Arzu, is a joint proprietor of Silk Approach Financial institution — the monetary arm of the group that owns Silk Approach West Airways, which is COP29’s ‘International Air Cargo Associate’.

In addition to the official companions, the COP29 organising committee can be closely staffed by members of Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Social gathering in addition to the state oil firm SOCAR. The president of the COP29 committee, Mukhtar Babayev, has labored in varied roles at SOCAR because the 90s.

The affect of the Aliyev household and its political allies on the set-up of COP29 has forged aspersions on the federal government’s motives to host the summit, which is primarily aimed toward reviewing progress on limiting and mitigating local weather change.

Greenwashing

This yr, the Local weather Motion Tracker ranked Azerbaijan’s local weather motion as “critically inadequate”.

The unbiased scientific mission goals to trace and measure progress towards local weather targets set out within the and says Azerbaijan is amongst a “tiny group of nations which have really weakened its local weather targets”.

Regardless of signalling good, inexperienced intentions forward of the local weather summit, the Azerbaijani authorities has already signed contracts and made pledges to extend its manufacturing and export of fossil fuels.

Affiliate director of Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division Giorgi Gogia advised SBS Information that Azerbaijan usually makes use of main occasions, not solely as a significant income supply for the ruling household however to cowl up its “abysmal” rights and local weather report.

He factors to Azerbaijans’ try to “whitewash” its worldwide picture by internet hosting Eurovision in 2012, which Gogia says backfired, as worldwide journalists masking the occasion witnessed the brutality of police and crackdown on protests firsthand.

In 2015, Azerbaijan hosted the first-ever European Video games, however this time it didn’t make the identical mistake. Within the lead-up to the occasion, scores of arrests have been made citing pretend expenses associated to cash laundering and treason — in the same vein to the crackdown forward of COP29.

A current paperwork the circumstances of 33 current arrests of human rights defenders, journalists, and unbiased civic activists in Azerbaijan. Amongst them, 20 people have been charged with smuggling cash into the nation.

What about overseas press?

Human Rights Watch lately obtained a duplicate of the Host Nation Settlement signed by Azerbaijan and the UN Framework Conference on Local weather Change (UNFCCC) masking the convention. A spokesperson for the organisation says it comprises language that “is replete with important shortcomings and ambiguities on the protections for contributors’ rights”.

Strip of paper reading "12. Without prejudice to the privileges and immunities provided by this Agreement, all Participants enjoying such privileges and immunities have the duty to respect the laws and regulations in force in the Republic of Azerbaijan and have the duty not to interfere in its internal affairs"

Human Rights Watch says: “There isn’t a readability within the settlement about what actions may represent ‘interference’ with Azerbaijan’s ‘inner affairs’ and whether or not Azerbaijan’s legal guidelines apply within the UN-run convention zone.” Credit score: SBS Information

Zhala Baryamova advised SBS Information they anticipate there to be no representatives of Azerbaijani civil society on the COP29 summit in Baku.

In a message to these attending, Baryamova says they hope others will communicate out about what Azerbaijanis can’t.

“We’re a part of the world, now we have [the] proper to debate all these issues like all of you,” they stated within the message.

“Please, we can’t do it now, however assist us to combat for local weather. For that, we have to be free, and my dad wants freedom.

“Be our voice, assist us, assist us.”