We, the undersigned, vehemently condemn the recent arrest and imprisonment by Azerbaijani authorities of esteemed economist and New University in Exile Consortium scholar, Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, who was arrested on July 23, 2023, upon his return to Azerbaijan for the first time since 2021. According to Reuters, Azerbaijani police claim to have found $40,000.00 in an office used by Dr. Ibadoghlu 10 years ago as the Economic Research Center in violation of a law on counterfeit currency. According to his lawyer, Zibeyda Sadigova, the court ordered him to remain in detention for 3 months and 26 days as he awaits trial. Gubad Ibadoghlu, who is the head of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Party, denies the accusation as patently false. According to his daughter, the Baku pre-trial detention centre-1 where he is detained under monstrous conditions has refused to accept clothes or the medication that he badly needs to treat his diabetes and other serious ailments.

Dr. Ibadoghlu is an internationally respected economist who most recently was a Visiting Fellow and Senior Economist at the London School of Economics from September 2021 to August 2023. Previously, he was a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Rutgers University Center for European Studies, a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study, and a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. He is a member of the International Board for Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI); Chairman of the Board of Azerbaijan Think Tank Alliance (ATTA), member of the Strategy Advisory Board of CAREC Think Tank Network (CTTN), member of Working Groups on “Grand Corruption and State Capture” and “Asset Stolen Recovery” of the UNCAC Coalition – Association for the Implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption and local expert in Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan (IAP) 5th Round of Monitoring Assessment Framework of the OECD.

In the name of justice, we demand that Dr. Ibadoghlu be immediately released and that the trumped-up charges leveled against him be dropped. We must put all the international pressure possible on the Azerbaijani government, headed by the infamous authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, to make this happen.