Ahmad Vuqar oglu Mammadli - public activist, founder of the Yoldash Media news agency Date of arrest: 6 May 2025 Charge: Change: Articles 126.2.4. (Deliberate causing of serious harm to health, committed publicly dangers a way, from hooligan prompting) and 221.3 (Hooliganism committed with application of a weapon or subjects, used as the weapon) of the Criminal Code of the Azerbaijan Republic. 82 On 8 May 2025, the Baku City Binagadi District Court issued a ruling: to apply a preventive measure against Ahmad Mammadli in the form of arrest for a period of 4 months. The period of detention in custody during the investigation has been subsequently extended times Sentence: On 16 March 2026, the Baku City Court for Serious Crimes sentenced to 6 years in prison Judge: Vuqar Seyidov Place of detention: Pre-trial Detention Center № 1 at the Kyurdakhani settlement in Baku City Sabunchu District Conclusion: Ahmad Mammadli, a social activist, has been repeatedly subjected to repressions by the authorities. In 2014, it was organised the youth movement ‘Democracy 1918’ (D18), which was established to promote democratic ideas and ensure human rights in Azerbaijan, Ahmad Mammadli was the chairman of “Democracy 1918”. In September 2022, he was subjected to administrative arrest for his appeals to punish Ilham Aliyev for human rights violations. Then, as soon as the police started exerting pressure against the D18 movement, and subsequently the arrests of its supporters, in September 2023, the movement announced the end of its activities due to the lack of political freedom in Azerbaijan. In January 2024, Ahmad Mammadli found out that he was forbidden to leave the country. He was summoned to the Main Department for Combating Corruption within the AR General Prosecutor's Office. There, he was told that a criminal case against him had been initiated. The reason for criminal case was an attempt to evade military service. Even though in November 2022, A. Mammadli submitted to the State Mobilization and Recruitment Service a certificate of his enrollment in a Master degree program at the University of Turkey. That certificate was labeled a forgery. But Mammadli denied the accusations of falsifying the document. Moreover, having spent 2 years going through many instances, at the beginning of March 2025, he obtained a military document confirming that he was not fit for military service due to his health problems and the ban on leaving the country had been lifted. There were no more the state claims filed against him. However, when on 29 March 2025, he along with his wife was trying to depart to Tbilisi, Georgia, he was detained at the Baku airport, and told that his ban to leave the country had not been lifted. On 6 May, 2025, Ahmad Mammadli began to cover the trial of the imprisoned opposition activist Tofig Yaqublu in order to provide later a full coverage, as at the time he was a freelance correspondent for a number of media outlets. In the evening at about 21:50, his wife and relatives lost touch with him. They complained to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and also spread that information on the social media. On the morning of 7 May 2025, the state media released the information that Ahmad Mammadli had allegedly stabbed a certain Vugar Dunyamaliyev in the stomach at around 22:00 on the previous day in Bilajari settlement. The reason for that was supposedly a dispute over a cab seat. Ahmad Mammadli was detained by the officers of Binagadi District Police Department. The detainee's wife, Turkan Mammadli, was informed by her husband's lawyer that in fact Ahmad had been subjected to the police assault. Soon, she discovered the details of her spouse's detention. According to her, on the night of 6 May, when Ahmad was returning home in a cab, unknown man jumped into the same vehicle, "The man started beating Ahmad in the cab. Then the car was driven aside, Ahmad was pulled out into another car and taken away to an undetermined location. Afterwards, he was beaten and electrocuted in order to obtain his phone password." According to Turkan Mammadli's statement, the real reason for Ahmad Mammadli's arrest had been connected to his activities, she said: 83 "His arrest is related to his journalistic work. Ahmad is engaged in independent journalistic activities. He used to provide the trial coverage to the media. That's the real reason for his arrest." In his closing statement before the court, Ahmad Mammadli denied the charges, linking the criminal case to his journalistic and public activities. Rasul Jafarov, his lawyer, stated that no credible evidence proving Mammadli’s guilt had been adduced: “Even the prosecution witness did not confirm the prosecution’s version but contradicted it. His testimony in court regarding the details of the incident, the identity of those involved, and the distance between them inside the vehicle differed significantly from what he had stated in his testimony during the investigation.”