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Gubad Ibadoghlu is a world-renowned economist who has studied corruption, the diversion of natural resource profits and the detrimental economic consequences of autocratic rule. As a Dresden Fellow and scholarship holder of the Philipp Schwartz Foundation, he has been a guest at TU Dresden for several months to conduct research at the Chair of Economics, in particular Public Economics. Since July 24, 2023, however, he has been imprisoned in Azerbaijan for alleged possession of counterfeit money.

On April 15, 2024, Zhala Bayramova, daughter of the detainee and human rights lawyer from Baku, was a guest at TU Dresden to draw attention to her father's fate in a panel discussion on scientific freedom, human rights and political realities. The panel, which was moderated by Katharina Schmitt (TU Dresden, International Campus) and also included Prof. Dr. Marcel Thum (TU Dresden & ifo Dresden) and Kassem Taher Saleh (Member of Parliament, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), further addressed the question of whether and why autocrats feel threatened by scientific research and how academics and politicians in democratic societies can protect their fellow researchers in autocracies.