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Baku Court of Appeal upholds blogger Imameddin Alimanov’s 7-year prison sentence

09 September 2025 19:01 (UTC +04:00)

The appeal against the verdict issued in the case of blogger Imameddin Alimanov, who lives abroad and was accused of making open calls against the state, has been reviewed, APA reports.

Today, during a hearing at the Baku Court of Appeal chaired by Judge Zafar Ahmadov, a decision was announced.

According to the decision, the appeal was rejected, and the verdict of the first-instance court was upheld.

Note that, based on the judgment delivered in absentia by the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, Imameddin Alimanov was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Alimanov is charged under Article 12.1 and 281.2 of the Criminal Code (repeated public calls against the state). Between April 2019 and May 2021, acting with a unified intent at various times, he created a YouTube social media account called “Xalq TV” and, through this channel, as well as in his video messages and speeches posted on “Osmanqizi TV” and “Inqilab TV” channels, there are reasonable suspicions that, together with other individuals as part of a pre-arranged group, he made public calls for the violent seizure and retention of power in the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as for the violent change of the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and disseminated materials of such content. Since Imameddin Alimanov fled the investigation and went into hiding outside the borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, it was not possible to bring charges against him. Therefore, a search warrant was issued for him by a decision dated May 27, 2021, and on the same date, the Binagadi District Court of Baku ruled to apply a preventive measure of arrest.