Activist who fled Iran fears for his safety in Azerbaijan

Puya Purhemmeti, an ethnic Azerbaijani activist who fled Iran, considers his continued stay in Azerbaijan dangerous. He fears that he may be deported to Iran or kidnapped by the Iranian security services. 

The Azerbaijani court fined him for illegal border crossing, the Azerbaijani service of the “Voice of America” reported.  "The prosecutor asked to sentence me to 1.5 years in prison, but the court awarded a fine of 3,000 manats and compensated this amount for the three months I spent in custody," said Purhemmeti.

The prosecutor's office further protested this verdict, but the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict. The Iranian citizen stressed that he feels in danger in Azerbaijan and wants to leave for a third country. "First of all, I don't want to be a problem for Azerbaijan and asked for help to get a humanitarian visa to travel to a third country. The Iranian Embassy openly threatens me, they found out my address in Baku and I was forced to change my place of residence," Purhemmeti said.

He applied to the Iranian consulate to get an Iranian passport, without which he cannot travel anywhere.  "When I contacted the consulate, they threatened that they would detain me and take me to Iran or physically eliminate me," Purhemmeti said.

He believes that returning to Iran means an imminent execution for him.  "I know that for sure. In Iran, they wanted to accuse me of spying for other countries. They will now be accused of spying for Azerbaijan and will be killed," Purhemmeti is sure.

His fears intensified after reports in the Iranian media about the kidnapping of one of the Iranian dissidents in Azerbaijan.  "Recently, the media close to SEPAH reported that a political activist was kidnapped in Azerbaijan and smuggled to Iran," he said.

Purhemmeti applied to the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the U.S. Embassy and embassies of several other countries to issue him a humanitarian visa.

"The UN High Commissioner said that since 2020 they have not dealt with this issue, offering only legal advice. The Red Cross also said that they do not deal with such issues, and I did not receive any answers from the embassies at all," said Purhemmeti.

Rufat Safarov, executive director of the human rights organization “Line of Protection,” said that a person subjected to unlawful persecution in his country has the right to seek asylum in another state. "The issue of the right to asylum in Azerbaijan is regulated by national and international legislation. It is stated in article 70 of the Constitution that Azerbaijan can grant political asylum to foreigners or stateless persons. This applies to persons who are persecuted in their countries for political beliefs and acts that are not considered a criminal offense in Azerbaijan, and they cannot be extradited to other states," Safarov said.

According to him, Purhemmeti participated in peaceful protests in Iran and was threatened with execution. "It was fleeing from this threat that he crossed the border of Iran and Azerbaijan with a white flag, which complies with the requirements of international law and the legislation of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, he was prosecuted in Azerbaijan, detained for three months, and then fined.

The Azerbaijani representative Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed that this structure can only help with legal assistance. The representative office refrained from other comments.

The US Embassy told the Azerbaijani service of Voice of America that "visa issues are confidential." "Therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases in the media," the mission said. It was not possible to get comments from the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan.