In an action closely mimicking the methods of Russian authorities, the Court of Serious Crimes in Baku, Azerbaijan, has convicted journalist and economist Farid Mehralizada, along with six other journalists, on various charges of smuggling, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, gang smuggling, and document forgery.

Their sentences ranged from seven and a half to nine years; all of the defendants have denied the charges, which they say are politically motivated.

Mehralizada, who received a nine-year sentence, had been reporting for RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, known locally as Azadliq Radiosu. He was arrested on May 30, 2024, when he was jumped by security agents who put a hood over his head and whispered in his ear, “You talk too much.” He had been held in detention for more than a year before finally reaching trial this week. [RFE/RL, June 20, 2025.]

In his final statement before the court, Mehralizada said that he understood “that the verdict you will read will not be the verdict of the judges, but of those who ordered our arrest. If they want, they can issue a life sentence for us, or even change the criminal code, restore the death penalty, and send us to execution. Because in countries where the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary are not respected, judicial processes are nothing more than a fake smile from authoritarian governments.” [Id.]

His actual “crime”? Publishing economic analyses critical of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas policies, and questioning official statistics regarding poverty and unemployment. [Id.]

With more than 30 journalists and human rights activities having been arrested recently on similar charges, there is little question that Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has adopted his methods of governance from Vladimir Putin’s playbook. Of course, Azerbaijani authorities — like their Russian counterparts — maintain that each and every arrest is the result of criminal activity, and not politically motivated.

Farid Mehralizada and the others sentenced on June 20th — Ulvi Hasanli, Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai), Mahammad Kekalov, Hafiz Babali, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova — are now to be added to our list, though they are outside of Russia. In the final analysis, they are all Putin’s Hostages.

*. *. *

And tragically, we have news of another Russian prisoner: a young woman named Nadezhda Rossinskaya, also known as Nadin Geisler, who was arrested for running a group called the “Army of Beauties” in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine during 2022-23, assisting some 25,000 people to flee to safety.

She was arrested in February of 2024, and later charged with treason and aiding “terrorist” activities by posting requests on Instagram for donations to Ukraine’s Azov Battalion. As previously reported, the Azov Battalion has been deemed a terrorist organization by the Russian government.

Geisler stated that she was not the author of the Instagram post, but was convicted anyway. Hers is the second-longest sentence handed down to a woman in modern Russian history. The longest was 27 years, issued to Darya Trepova, a Russian woman convicted last year of delivering a bomb that killed a pro-war blogger in 2023.

And so our list grows this week. I hate that.

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Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

The Azerbaijan 7:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus) on
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea, Ukraine)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

You are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/22/25