Human Rights Groups urge Council of Europe to Act on Forced Return of Afgan Sadigov

Eight human rights organisations, including the Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan, have written to Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, calling for urgent action following the forced return of journalist Afgan Sadigov from Tbilisi to Baku on 5 April 2026.

The letter sets out four concrete demands directed at the Secretary General’s office:

• Invoke Article 52 of the European Convention on Human Rights to request that Azerbaijan explain how its domestic law ensures the effective implementation of the Convention, in light of a decade of documented and systematic violations, including the transnational repression of its own citizens on the territory of fellow member states;
• Commission an independent report on Georgia’s conduct in the Sadigov case, examining whether Georgia’s expulsion of Afgan Sadigov, carried out in direct defiance of a binding interim measure of the European Court of Human Rights, is compatible with its obligations under the Convention;
• Appoint a Special Representative on the South Caucasus to ensure a sustained, coordinated response to the cross-border suppression of dissent, a phenomenon that existing mechanisms have demonstrably failed to address;
• Call on Council of Europe member states to use available diplomatic and political measures to support the protection of Afgan Sadigov, including by facilitating his right to family reunification, particularly given that he has already been summoned twice by the Azerbaijani authorities since his return to Baku.

Afgan Sadigov is the founder and editor of the regional news site Azel.tv. He was arrested in Tbilisi late at night on 5 April 2026 on alleged administrative grounds, and deported to Azerbaijan within hours. He had relocated to Georgia in 2023 following repeated criminal and administrative persecution in Azerbaijan. When he was arrested in August 2024 on an Azerbaijani extradition request, the European Court of Human Rights issued a binding interim measure in January 2025 prohibiting his extradition. He was released on bail in April 2025. In the months that followed, he and his legal team sought authorisation for him to leave Georgia and reunite with his family elsewhere. That request was never granted. His expulsion through administrative proceedings, after the extradition route had been blocked by the Court, raises serious concerns of refoulement and, in substance, extraordinary rendition. As of 10 April 2026, the Court has invited further observations, including on whether his transfer to Azerbaijan in disregard of an interim measure violated Article 34 of the Convention.

Read our earlier statement on the case →

Our letter situates Sadigov’s case within a broader pattern of bilateral coordination between Georgia and Azerbaijan in the suppression of dissent. Georgia’s recently enacted legislation targeting foreign funding mirrors tactics Azerbaijan has long used to dismantle independent civil society. The visit of President Ilham Aliyev to Tbilisi on 6 April, the day after Sadigov’s deportation, reinforces concerns about deliberate coordination aimed at restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms, in direct contradiction with both states’ obligations as Council of Europe member states.

This pattern is consistent with findings documented by Freedom House, which identifies Georgia amongst the countries of concern in its research on transnational repression. According to Freedom House, authoritarian collaboration of this kind is fuelling an increase in cross-border repression, with governments coordinating to pursue dissidents abroad.

Our letter makes clear that Sadigov’s case is not an isolated incident. It is the latest episode in a decade of repression by Azerbaijan, repeatedly condemned by human rights organisations and the European Court of Human Rights, yet met with a measured and conciliatory response from the Council of Europe’s leadership. The letter argues that this has emboldened Azerbaijan and lowered the threshold for what other member states consider acceptable. Georgia’s conduct in the Sadigov case is a direct expression of that lowered threshold. The credibility of the European human rights system is now at stake.

The letter is signed by the Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), Freedom Now, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Social Justice Center, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.