ELNARƏ QASIMOVA
Abzas Mediada çalışan və mübahisəli ittihamlarla həbsdə olan cəsarətli jurnalist, korrupsiya ilə bağlı araşdırmalara verdiyi töhfə, dəfələrlə həbs və hökumət təzyiqləri qarşısında dözümlü olması ilə tanınır.
About Elnara Gasimova
Elnara Gasimova was born on 5 February 1996 in Baku. She studied at the Baku State College of Communication and Transport from 2011 to 2014. Elnara Gasimova was a part of the NIDA Civic Movement between 2014 and 2016.
In 2016, she completed the Baku Journalism School project. She began her career in media, collaborating with outlets such as Meydan TV, Mikroskop Media, Open Azerbaijan, and Voice of America. She covered mainly social and human rights issues and storytelling videos. Several months before her arrest, she joined Abzas Media.
Throughout her career, she has faced harassment and threats while reporting. In 2021, she was detained by police while covering a protest and was allegedly threatened to delete her footage.
She was first summoned to testify as a witness on 13 January 2024, in the ongoing criminal investigation involving Abzas Media, but was subsequently arrested. Like other detained journalists from Abzas Media, she faced charges under Article 206.3.2 of the Criminal Code (smuggling by an organised group), which were later amended. Authorities alleged that Qasimova and Abzas Media’s director, Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi (Abbasova), and others smuggled funds into Azerbaijan from foreign donor organisations.
Case description
On 15 January 2024, after being arrested on charges of smuggling foreign currency, the Khatai District Court remanded Elnara Gasimova for two months and 17 days. As the investigation progressed, the authorities amended the charges and included more severe offences such as illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery.
Gasimova consistently denied all accusations, stating that the charges were fabricated in response to Abzas Media’s reporting on government corruption. Her pre-trial detention was extended multiple times, with motions for transferring her under house arrest denied.
The criminal trial against Gasimova began on December 17, 2024, at the Baku Court on Grave Crimes. On June 20, 2025, she was convicted on the combined charges and sentenced to eight years in prison.
While in detention, Gasimova faced harsh conditions, including poor sanitation and ventilation, and surveillance via closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV). In February 2024, she and other journalists refused to attend their trial, protesting degrading conditions such as being transported in overcrowded, smoke-filled vehicles and held in cold basement rooms at the courthouse. Following her conviction, in July 2025, together with Sevinj Vagifgizi and Nargiz Absalamova, Elnara began a hunger strike to protest the transfer of their colleague, Ulvi Hasanli, to a remote prison. Officials responded by placing them in isolation. The imprisoned journalists ended their hunger strike after five days due to concerns for their family members’ health.
On 23 September 2025, Elnara Gasimova was transferred to the correctional labour complex in the village of Gurumba in Lankaran, over 250 kilometres from Baku, where her family lives.
Resources about Elnara Gasimova
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