Resolution on Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu

Date

Background

Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, a renowned political economist and chairperson of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement, has been arbitrarily detained and imprisoned in Azerbaijan since July 2023. He is an internationally respected economist who most recently was a Visiting Fellow and Senior Economist at the London School of Economics from September 2021 to August 2023. He was arrested on July 23rd, 2023, on the orders of the Azerbaijani government shortly after his first return to the country since 2021. According to Reuters, Azerbaijani police claim to have found $40,000.00 in an office used by Dr. Ibadoghlu 10 years ago as the Economic Research Center in violation of a law on counterfeit currency. According to his lawyer, Zibeyda Sadigova, the court ordered him to remain in detention for 3 months and 26 days as he awaits trial. Gubad Ibadoghlu, who is the head of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Party, denies the accusation as patently false.

Resolution

Whereas: 

  • Dr. Ibadoghlu has previously served as a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Rutgers University Center for European Studies and has close ties to the faculty of Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He has additionally served as an Endangered Scholar at Rutgers University, and has taught in the departments of Economics, Political Science, and Geography.
  • Dr. Ibadoghlu has denied and refuted the charges against him. The charges against him are fabricated and politically motivated, resulting from his civic activism and criticism of government corruption. 
  • Furthermore, he has been subjected to inhumane treatment, despite his delicate and deteriorating health condition. According to his daughter, the Baku pre-trial detention centre-1 where he is detained under monstrous conditions has refused to accept clothes or the medication that he badly needs to treat his diabetes and other serious ailments. Since being placed in detention, Dr. Ibadoghlu has suffered worsening health problems and faces the prospect of dying in captivity. 

Therefore, be it resolved that: 

  • The Faculty Council of Rutgers University, New Brunswick calls for the immediate release of Dr. Ibadoghlu from detention. 
  • We further call for the politically motivated charges against Dr. Ibadoghlu to be dropped immediately by the Azerbaijani government.