AFIADDIN MAMMADOV

About Afiaddin Mammadov

Afiaddin Mammadov was born on 20 March 1995 in the Jalilabad district of Azerbaijan. He is a well-known social activist focused on defending workers’ rights. He is the head of the Workers’ Table Trade Unions Confederation, which is the only trade union in Azerbaijan focused on defending workers’ rights. Since its inception in March 2022, the organisation has held several protests advocating for workers’ rights, but its board members and activists have faced repeated persecution and arrests.

In addition to his role in the Workers’ Table, Mammadov was a member of the board of the Democracy 1918 (D18) movement until it suspended its activities on 10 September 2023.

Mammadov has been in detention since 20 September 2023, and faces severe charges under the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, including deliberate injury with hooligan intent (Article 126.2.4), hooliganism using weapons (Article 221.3), and illegal acquisition and possession of cold weapons (Article 228.4). If convicted, he faces up to eleven years in prison.

The charges allege that on 20 September 2023, Mammadov argued with and injured a man named Safar Huseynov in the Khatai district of Baku. However, he denies the charges. An unknown man approached and punched him in the face, causing his nose to bleed and knocking him down. Shortly afterwards, police arrived, handcuffed him, and took him to the 34th Police Department. It was only at the station that Mammadov learned he was being accused of stabbing Huseynov. Despite his injuries, including a broken nose, Mammadov’s requests for medical assistance and contact with his lawyer were initially ignored.

The first arrest, on 11 November 2022, was not made known to his family for twenty-four hours, until the Khatai District Court disclosed that he had been sentenced him to thirty days of administrative detention for allegedly disobeying police orders. Mammadov claims that he was tortured and threatened with sexual assault during his detention to force him to disclose the password to his phone.

Mammadov was arrested again on 23 December 2022, approximately twenty days after completing his first sentence. This time, he was detained in front of the Baku Court of Appeals while attending a hearing about the case of another activist, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, and was again sentenced to thirty days of administrative detention along with others.

Mammadov’s third administrative detention began on 1 August 2023. Several members of the Workers’ Table and a group of delivery couriers were protesting the police’s confiscation of their vehicles. Shortly after the protest, Mammadov was detained near his home and sentenced to another thirty days of administrative detention. During this detention, he went on a hunger strike to protest the restriction of his right to communicate with his family by phone.

Mammadov was released at the end of August 2023, only to be arrested again on 20 September, this time facing criminal charges.

To date, Afiaddin Mammadov is currently being held in the Baku Detention Center, where he struggles with breathing difficulties due to his broken nose. He claims that his detention is politically motivated in relation to his activism with the Workers’ Table Trade Unions Confederation, which has been critical of government policies regarding workers’ rights. His trial continues at the Baku Court of Grave Crimes