Date of Birth:121 February 1990
Detained Since: 11 August 2023
Affiliation: Board Member, Labour Desk Trade Unions Confederation (İşçi Masası)

Charges:

• Illegal acquisition, possession, preparation, processing, or transportation of a significant quantity of narcotic substances without intent to sell (Art. 234.1-1 of the Criminal Code)

Conviction and Sentence:
On 2 April 2024, the Baku Assize Court convicted Aykhan Israfilov and sentenced him to three years in prison. The Baku Court of Appeal upheld the verdict on 12 June 2024, and the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction on 11 March 2025.

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.

• His prosecution is politically motivated, aimed at silencing him for his organising role within independent labour movements.

Summary:

Aykhan Israfilov is a gig-economy worker and labour-rights organiser, serving as a board member of the Labour Desk Trade Unions Confederation, the only independent trade union representing couriers and platform workers in Azerbaijan. He was detained on 11 August 2023 and charged under Article 234.1-1, accused of possessing a significant quantity of narcotics. The charges are widely viewed as fabricated, forming part of the broader “Labour Desk (İşçi Masası) case” alongside the arrests of Afiyaddin Mammadov, Elvin Mustafayev, and Mohyaddin Orujov.

Israfilov’s case reflects the systemic use of drug charges against labour organisers during Azerbaijan’s crackdown on independent civic actors beginning in late 2022. He reported being detained by plainclothes officers, beaten, and threatened with the planting of a larger quantity of drugs unless he admitted to possessing a smaller amount. He stated that police forced him to handle a heroin packet for a staged video-recorded search. Despite the seriousness of these allegations, the court refused to investigate, relying exclusively on police testimony and a state-controlled forensic analysis that confirmed only the substance type—not possession.

The trial was marred by procedural violations, including denial of prompt access to legal counsel, absence of independent witnesses during the search, and reliance on a medical examination conducted inside a state-controlled detention facility, which unsurprisingly reported no injuries despite his detailed allegations of abuse. The court dismissed his claims as “self-serving,” failed to obtain independent evidence, and ignored the absence of any verifiable link between him and the narcotics.

His arrest occurred amid a broader campaign to dismantle post-2014 informal civic networks and suppress emerging worker-led organising. The Labour Desk’s growing influence among gig-economy workers posed a challenge to state-controlled labour structures, making its organisers—especially board members like Israfilov—a predictable target.

International human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have denounced the charges as politically motivated, identifying his prosecution as part of the state’s broader repression of independent labour and civic activism.

Download full legal analysis here as PDF