Ibad Bayramov and Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu (Image: Ibad Bayramov)
A student who spent months “feeling like a dead corpse” has asked Lord David Cameron to help him secure the release of his father who is being held on allegedly trumped-up charges in Azerbaijan.
Ibad Bayramov, 23, told the Daily Express he lost all sense of time or place when his father, a London-based academic, was arrested last year.
Dozens of campaigners and organisations have echoed Ibad’s concern and have written to the Foreign Secretary today urging him to take action to help Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu.
Dr Ibadoghlu, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) and renowned Azerbaijani anti-corruption activist, has been imprisoned since July 23rd, 2023 on what many claim are politically motivated charges.
If found guilty of dealing with counterfeit money and allegedly possessing extremist material, the 52-year-old could face up to 17 years in prison.
Dr Ibadoghlu’s family has accused western capitals of failing to press for his release because of Baku’s role supplying energy to Europe as it weans itself off Russian supplies.
“I just want to ask Lord Cameron to help me see my father alive. I don’t know if I will ever see him again,” Ibad said.
“He is a human rights activist who has been promoting the values that governments like the UK have been trying to protect at all costs.
“So to turn a blind eye just because of the economic ties, it’s turning a blind eye on your own cherished values.”
In their letter to Lord David Cameron today, the campaigners have urged him to take three key steps to help secure the immediate release of Dr Ibadoghlu.
The 47 campaigners and organisations include the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International UK and Spotlight on Corruption as well as a raft of leading academics.
First, the letter asks the Foreign Secretary to meet with Dr Ibadoghlu’s family as soon as possible to discuss support and possible next steps.
Secondly, it asks him to consider measures like sanctions against the ruling elite that own vast wealth in UK property.
Finally, use this year’s COP climate summit which is being held in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku as an opportunity to engage with the government on its continuing human rights abuses.
Writing for the Daily Express, Peter Munro and Stevie Wolfe from the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition said: “The UK has long claimed to support a ‘rules-based system’. This case is an opportunity – more than that, an obligation – to show we mean it.”
UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron (Image: Getty)
Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu (Image: Ibad Bayramov)
It comes a fortnight after democracy activist Evgenia Kara-Murza, 43, told the Foreign Secretary that a trove of measures including severe sanctions, automatic exclusion from international groups and a dedicated hostage affairs envoy must be introduced as the number of political prisoners rises internationally.
In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights has found a “troubling pattern” of arrests and detention of government critics in Azerbaijan.
Independent organisations estimate there are nearly 300 political prisoners held in the former-Soviet state, including journalists, activists and opposition politicians.
After being ambushed and arrested, Dr Ibadoghlu was held in a dingy cell with two other prisoners and unclean drinking water for nine months.
The father of three suffered severely in prison due to his type 2 diabetes and hypertension, putting him at high risk of having a heart attack.
Despite numerous requests from his family and a letter from the ECHR demanding he be immediately transferred to a hospital, he was denied proper medical care.
Reflecting on his father’s arrest, Ibad told the Express: “It was a shock. Even though the possibility of his arrest was something we had always spoken about.
“If you’re an opposition politician in Azerbaijan the chance of you getting thrown in prison is very high. We lived with that fear all the time.
“But then it happened and I don’t think there was any way we could really have been ready for it.
“I spent months feeling like a dead corpse. Time was passing by but it didn’t feel like it was. Suddenly I was in a foreign place that I didn’t know, I found it hard to cope.”
Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz speaking about energy deals (Image: Getty)
Oil derricks on the outskirt of Baku (Image: Getty)
Dr Ibadoghlu’s family warn he is now suffering grave health complications as he faces trial under strict house arrest.
Initial evaluations carried out by a family friend suggest his health has severely deteriorated since his arrest, and that he will likely need major surgery.
However, he is unable to access proper hospital care because authorities in Baku have confiscated his ID which is required to access hospital care.
Before his arrest, Dr Ibadoghlu had been a vocal critic of the systemic corruption surrounding Azerbaijan’s ruling elite and helped to raise awareness of the ‘Azerbaijani Laundromat’.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled £2.33billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the UK.
Just weeks before his arrest, Dr Ibadoghlu set up a British-based charity called the Azerbaijani Youth Educational Foundation.
The charity was intended to redistribute the money confiscated from the oligarchs and laundromats by the UK National Crime Agency and using it to fund the studies of Azerbaijani students abroad but has been unable to progress since his arrest.
The father of three also worked as a political economist across Europe and the US for nearly a decade before returning to his native country last summer to visit family.
Ibad and his siblings Zhala, 25, and Emin, 22, have tirelessly campaigned for their father’s release since his bombshell arrest but they say western governments are turning a blind eye because of lucrative energy deals.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU was forced to rapidly secure energy from other sources and turned to oil-rich Azerbaijan as their new partner.
Dr Ibadoghlu was fast to criticise the move, saying the infrastructure was not in place to fulfill the new deals and suggested Azerbaijan could end up reselling Russian gas to Europe.
Ibad said: “What we are seeing from British energy companies and the government is a repeat of what happened with Russia.
“Putin showed his true colours when he annexed Crimea in 2014. British energy companies could have packed up and left. None of them did.
“It would be naive to say they are unaware of the human rights abuses going on in Azerbaijan today.
“It makes me so angry to see history repeating itself in such a short time.
“Something must be done. They are putting money over human rights, again.”
The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.
