Bahruz Samadov, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague and a member of IAMCR, was detained by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service and subsequently charged with 'high treason'. He will apparently be held for an expected 4-month pre-trial period. If convicted he faces a prison term of 12 to 20 years.
The charge is related to his research and advocacy work. According to Amnesty International the charges stem from “his critical articles on Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh policy and connections with Armenian activists”.
The Brussels-based Center for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance (DESIRE) and the Populism Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association have launched a support campaign and a petition that you can sign at https://www.psapopulism.org/blog/news/free-bahruz-samadov. Another open letter on the subject by international scholars can be found here. The Université Libre de Bruxelles, where Samadov has spent a research stay, has also published a statement concerning his detention. PEN America, Amnesty International (repeatedly), the International Press Institute, Human Rights Watch, and Le Monde have all reported about the case and shown their concern.
In a letter addressed to IAMCR members, Nico Carpentier, Samadov’s PhD consultant at Charles University (and former IAMCR president), encouraged all members to sign the petition and to circulate it in their own countries and regions.