Date of Birth: 10 August 1987
Detained Since: 20 November 2023
Affiliation: Director, AbzasMedia; civil society activist

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)

• Forgery and use of forged documents (Arts. 320.1, 320.2)

Conviction and Sentence:
On 20 June 2025, the Baku Assize Court convicted Ulvi Hasanli and sentenced him to 9 years in prison. His appeal is pending.

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 and aimed at silencing him as the director of AbzasMedia and a prominent civic activist

Summary:
Ulvi Hasanli is a well-known Azerbaijani journalist and civil society activist with more than two decades of engagement in democratic movements, including the Dalgha Youth Movement and the N!DA Civic Movement. In 2016, he founded AbzasMedia, an anti-corruption investigative outlet, and has since served as its executive director. For his activism and journalism, he has faced repeated repression, including illegal conscription, administrative detentions, and police brutality.

He was arrested on 20 November 2023 and charged the next day with conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling. Prosecutors later escalated charges to include illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and forgery. Authorities claim that €40,000 discovered in the AbzasMedia office was evidence of criminal activity. Ulvi maintains that the money was planted by police while he was already under their control.

His trial, beginning in December 2024, relied on lawfully dubious evidence, speculative associations, and vague legal reasoning. Observers note that no forensic or documentary evidence links him personally to the alleged smuggling or financial crimes. The proceedings echoed the politically repressive prosecutions of 2013–2014, already condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.

Ulvi’s detention forms part of a broader, coordinated crackdown on AbzasMedia and independent media in Azerbaijan. Beginning in late 2023, this campaign targeted journalists and contributors with identical charges, mirroring previous state-orchestrated repression of NGOs and media. The arrests followed restrictive laws on media (2021) and political parties (2022), paving the way for mass criminalisation of dissent.

Since his arrest, Ulvi has been denied fair trial safeguards, while pro-government media has run smear campaigns against him. Authorities selectively leaked personal files to further discredit him and AbzasMedia.

International human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, have denounced his arrest and conviction as politically motivated and unjust.

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