Theologian Sardar Babayev imprisoned in punishment cell

Shiite theologian Sardar Babayev has been put in a punishment cell after being transferred to a colony, his lawyer Elchin Sadygov said.

He visited Babayev at thev Penitentiary Service Colony No. 7 on 12 February. Babayev was transferred there from the pre-trial detention centre on 25 January after the Baku Court of Appeal rejected his appeal and his conviction came into force.

Immediately after his arrival at the colony, Sardar Babayev was placed in a punishment cell and a report on violation of order was drawn up. Sardar Babayev refused to sign the report or give any testimony against himself and is still being held in the punishment cell, Sadygov said.

Babayev told his lawyer that a high official in the colony administration told him that the decision to put him in the punishment cell came "from above" and that the ground was being prepared for sending him to the Gobustan indoor prison.

The lawyer noted that he had sent official appeals to the management of the Penitentiary Service and Colony No. 7 with a request to explain the official reasons for Babayev's disciplinary punishment.
Elshan Hasanov, head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Centre and human rights activist, does not believe Babayev committed a misdemeanour. "A person who has just arrived in the colony will not violate the order. I know Sardar Babayev, he is not the kind of person who would allow himself inappropriate behaviour," Hasanov said.

He noted that Azerbaijan has already seen cases of toughening the punishment regime for theologians and religious activists.

At one time Islamic Party leader Movsum Samedov, head of the Muslim Unity Movement Tale Bagirzade, his deputy Abbas Huseynov were sent to Gobustan prison and spent part of their prison term there.

The imprisonment of religious figures in the Gobustan prison is intended to isolate them completely in order to deprive them of communication and influence over other prisoners.

*Babayev was arrested in the autumn of 2021 amid deteriorating Azerbaijani-Iranian relations and two years later was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment on charges of spying for Iran.

On 3 July 2017, the court sentenced him to 3 years in prison, finding him guilty of violating the requirements for conducting religious ceremonies (Article 168-1.3 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code).

On 1 February 2024, the ECHR recognised the violation of Babayev's rights in this case and ordered that he be paid €6,000 for moral damages and €2,500 for court costs as compensation.