Date of Birth: 24 May 1968
Detained Since: 8 March 2024
Affiliation: Media-law expert; co-founder and legal representative of Toplum TV; former Internews and IREX Azerbaijan lawyer; founder, Media Law Institute

Charges:

• Conspiracy to commit illegal entrepreneurship (Art. 192.3.2)

• Conspiracy to commit money laundering (Arts. 193-1.3.1, 193-1.3.2)

• Conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling (Art. 206.4)

• Conspiracy to commit tax evasion (Art. 213.2.1)

• Arranging employment of a substantial number of employees without labour contracts (Art. 162-1)

Conviction and Sentence:
Trial ongoing before the Baku Assize Court. No conviction or sentence to date.

Political Prisoner Status:
His detention meets criteria (a) and (e) of PACE Resolution 1900 (2012):

• Violation of freedom of expression and association under the ECHR.

• The prosecution is politically motivated, aimed at silencing a leading media-law expert and the legal founder of an independent outlet, Toplum TV.

Summary:
Alasgar Mammadli is a prominent Azerbaijani lawyer specialising in media rights. He has trained hundreds of journalists and lawyers, authored foundational texts on media and election law, and advised the OSCE and Council of Europe. He co-founded the Media Law Institute, helped launch the Civil Society Platform (2016), and served as legal founder/representative for Toplum TV, a platform prioritising human rights and freedom of expression.

On 8 March 2024, he was detained amid a wider crackdown on independent media and civil society. He was initially charged with conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling; on 12 March 2025, prosecutors escalated the case to include illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and labour-code violations. The case—colloquially known as the Toplum TV case—follows coordinated raids on 6 March 2024 of Toplum TV/IDI/TRP offices and staff homes, during which authorities claimed to “discover” 123,048.96 AZN in mixed currencies. Staff state the cash was planted while they were under police control; lawyers were excluded from key searches, and devices/documents were seized.

Procedurally, investigators relied on undisclosed “operational information,” withheld from the defence, and executed search and seizure under the guise of operational measures rather than criminal-procedural safeguards. Searches were conducted without counsel; personal data were selectively leaked to pro-government media to facilitate defamatory campaigns. These patterns mirror earlier waves of repression, enabled by restrictive Law on Media (2021) and Law on Political Parties (2022) frameworks.

The prosecution has not presented verifiable evidence linking Mammadli personally to smuggling or financial crimes. The theory rests on guilt by association with Toplum TV’s critical coverage and on contested cash finds. International standards on fair trial and due process have been repeatedly compromised.

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