Deported Journalist Afgan Sadigov ‘Forcibly’ Taken Away by Masked Individuals, Wife Says

Source: civil.ge

Journalist Afgan Sadigov, who was deported by Georgia to Azerbaijan in April, was “forcibly” taken away by “4–5 masked individuals in plain clothes” to an unclear direction, the journalist’s wife, Sevinc Sadigova, wrote on Facebook on June 8.

“Just now, 4–5 masked individuals in plain clothes stormed the place where Afqan was and forcibly took him away. No information has been provided about where they took him or the reason for it,” Sadigova said, later writing that he was taken to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan. No other details are known so far.

Earlier, on May 26, Sadigov said that he was not allowed to leave Azerbaijan, noting he was told at customs that the ban was imposed by Baku’s Prosecutor’s Office and Interior Ministry.

Sadigov, who had faced arrest and prosecution in Azerbaijan, was detained late on April 4 in Tbilisi on allegations of “insulting a police officer on social media,” soon after which the court ruled to deport him under the laws that allow deportation for foreigners committing administrative offences. The journalist had lived in Georgia since 2023 and spent over seven months in extradition detention following his arrest by Georgian authorities in August 2024. He was released on bail in April 2025, after the European Court of Human Rights issued an interim ruling barring his extradition to Azerbaijan.