The Azerbaijani scientist Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu was due to start his guest stay at TU Dresden in January of this year on a scholarship from the Philipp Schwartz Initiative. However, since July 24, 2023, the renowned economist, who has worked intensively on corruption and the detrimental economic consequences of autocratic rule, has been imprisoned in Baku for alleged possession of counterfeit money. Despite the worldwide commitment of human rights organizations, the prospects for his release are poor. The TUD is also campaigning for Dr. Ibadoghlu's rights. On Monday, April 15, 2024, there was a discussion event on human rights, academic freedom and political reality together with Gubad Ibadoghlu's daughter, Zhala Bayramova, and his mentor at TUD, Prof. Marcel Thum. CulTUre spoke to both of them about the circumstances of their imprisonment, the impact on the entire family and their appointment as Dresden Fellows at TU Dresden.

Prof. Thum, what was the original reason for Gubad Ibadoghlu to come to TU Dresden as a Fellow?

Marcel Thum: We’ve known each other since the start of 2021 – only via Zoom due to the Covid pandemic. At the time, we had developed a research project investigating corruption in resource-rich countries. Corruption research is something we’re both interested in. He did a lot of work on how profits from oil and gas were “privatized” in CIS countries and what consequences this had for their economic development. And I've studied the theoretical foundations of corrupt bureaucracies. He then went to the London School of Economics for two years. At the end of 2023, we wanted to bring him to Dresden as a Dresden Senior Fellow and as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Philipp Schwartz Initiative.

What are the official reasons for Gubad Ibadoghlu's imprisonment?

Marcel Thum: As I don't know Azerbaijan and the situation there personally, I can only report what I have heard from his family and NGOs. The reasons given by the regime, and how these reasons change as needed, are indeed striking. Allegedly, counterfeit money was found in his apartment, where he had not lived for years. This is a typical accusation in autocratic countries. The accusation has the advantage that you can easily produce the “evidence” yourself and that you get the support of the local population for allegations of this kind. It helps to convey the image of foreign elites who want to exploit the poor Azerbaijani people. Later on, there was also the accusation of religious extremism – a completely absurd accusation if you know the rational economist Gubad Ibadoghlu. Writings from the Gülen movement were allegedly found in his possession, although these do not appear in the original search reports. I suspect this was to make it more difficult for colleagues from Türkiye and other countries to support Gubad because they would come under fire in their own country.   

Zhala Bayramova, what are you currently doing about your father's imprisonment?

Zhala Bayramova: The main effort is concentrated on getting him proper medical attention and hospitalization. We already have a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights demanding that Azerbaijani authorities do both of these things. However, we need to put enough pressure on them in order to implement that decision. So in order to get them to do that I meet with members of state and European parliaments, diplomats, and other officials. I am trying to get them to put as much pressure as possible and get them to meet with Azerbaijani officials to discuss my father’s case. The detention center does not even allow the International Committee of Red Cross to examine him so there is absolutely no independent oversight. He is in need of urgent attention. He has diabetes, can barely move and has nerve degradation due to high blood sugar levels.

Is this similar to your "usual" work? What cases do you usually handle in your work as a human rights lawyer? How does "work" change when it involves your own family? Would you call this "work"?

Zhala Bayramova: This is not that similar to my usual work as a lawyer as this has significantly more advocacy efforts involved. I have been activism as well though, so in that sense the difference is mostly about the intensity of the “work” and the never ending storm of bad news. As a human right’s lawyer you mostly interact with courts, starting at a national level and then reaching the ECtHR. Even though there has been some of this during this case as well, there are other lawyers handling this case and doing communication with ECtHR while I am focused on advocacy.
My previous work was mostly about LBTQIA+ cases in Azerbaijan. However there very few human rights lawyers in Azerbaijan I also handled cases regarding freedom of assembly, right to fair trial, right against arbitrary detention right to private life and right to property, so a very broad spectrum overall.
This advocacy is much more emotionally draining as I feel like I am responsible for my father’s life.  Even a small mistake can lead to his death. This part is very difficult to live with and gives me constant fear and anxiety. I also advocate for other political prisoners in Azerbaijan. I write policy documents and try to spread awareness about them among European officials. Some of prisoners have family members that cannot escape Azerbaijan, because they do not speak other languages or because they have small children. So yeah, I can call this work, but this perhaps somewhat harder work than before.

You are currently working from Azerbaijan. How well can you carry out your work from there? Are you feeling blocked in any way?

Zhala Bayramova: I am not working from Azerbaijan as I currently live in Sweden. If I were in Azerbaijan I would not be able to carry out the work as I would have been already arrested. I was already beaten up and tortured by the police in 2020 while I was an observer during the parliamentary election in February. I was also sexually harassed by the police while the state media was calling for a criminal investigation against me, not all the people who did these things to me. Later on they were calling me a traitor for my peace activism during the Second Karabakh war. So I was definitely on the government’s watch list there.
Soon after the arrest of my father, the remaining family in Azerbaijan was placed under travel ban. This ban was only lifted after the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding his release. My personal pictures taken from our family chat on my father’s confiscated phone and were spread online and various state and state-friendly media in Azerbaijan were calling me an Armenian traitor and that I was spreading “gay propaganda,” as some of the photos had LGBT flags.
Even though I was in Sweden at the time, I did not feel fully safe here either as I was being followed in Stockholm. In addition to that my brother Emin, who is studying at the Rutgers university in New Jersey, had his room ransacked by the Azerbaijani state agents. We know it was them because it was a shared house with other students and only his room was affected. They stole documents that Emin had relating to my father, like copies of his passport and bank statements, while nothing else of value in the house was touched. My brother is currently under FBI protection, but due to all this none of our family members can really feel safe.

Prof. Thum, to what extent do you see it as your duty to help Gubad Ibadoghlu and bring his imprisonment to the attention of the general public?

Marcel Thum: First of all, of course, I want to contribute in some small way so that we can get Gubad, whom I hold in high esteem, out of this life-threatening situation that he faces in prison in Azerbaijan. And then I also have a fundamental academic reason: Gubad's research, which combines economic theory with empirical analysis and detailed institutional knowledge, has helped us to understand much better where things went wrong in the CIS countries. A select few have become super-rich, but there has been no real economic development from which the general population could benefit in the long term. But with this research – as we can now see – Gubad has also become a target for the authorities in these countries. But we need this kind of well-founded research of high political relevance, and we need to support those who have the courage to undertake it.

The Philipp Schwartz Initiative 
With the full scholarship of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative (PSI), universities and research institutions in Germany are given the opportunity each year to host researchers who are at risk or have already fled their home countries for 24 months. The Philipp Schwartz Initiative was launched by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation together with the Federal Foreign Office. This initiative is funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Stifterverband and the Stiftung Mercator. 

More information on the funding program: http://www.philipp-schwartz-initiative.de