- Azerbaijani dissident Vidadi Isgandarli was attacked and died in France.
- He criticized Azerbaijan's government and had a popular blog and YouTube channel.
- The attack follows a prior incident involving another dissident, Mahammad Mirzali.
Vidadi Isgandarli, a 62-year-old Azerbaijani dissident who had been granted asylum in France, was known for his outspoken criticism of the Azerbaijani government under President Ilham Aliyev. He maintained a blog and a popular YouTube channel where he discussed political issues. Isgandarli was brutally attacked while sleeping in his apartment in Mulhouse on Sunday by three masked assailants, ultimately succumbing to his injuries on Tuesday, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
In response to the incident, Natalia Nozadze, Amnesty International’s researcher for the South Caucasus, emphasized the necessity of a thorough and prompt investigation into Isgandarli’s violent death. “We call on the French authorities to consider all possible motives for his killing, including his criticism of the Azeri president and government, which led to his exile,” Nozadze stated in a statement late Wednesday.
This attack comes in the wake of a previous incident involving another Azerbaijani dissident in France. In March 2021, Mahammad Mirzali, an exiled critic of the Azerbaijani authorities, was punched and stabbed in Nantes, highlighting a troubling trend of violence against dissidents living in exile.
“This is the second time in recent years that an Azerbaijani living in exile in France has been the victim of a knife attack,” Nozadze noted. She called on the French government to ensure effective protection for individuals at risk who are seeking international protection.
International scrutiny of Azerbaijan’s human rights record is expected to intensify, particularly as the gas-rich nation prepares to host the COP 29 UN climate change conference in November. President Aliyev has been in power since the death of his father, Heydar, in 2003, and is frequently accused by rights groups of suppressing freedoms in the country.
French centrist MEP Nathalie Loiseau, a former Europe minister, condemned the situation, stating on X, “Opponents of the Aliyev regime have already been attacked in France. Today one of them is dead. The COP29 in Baku is the COP of shame.”
Additionally, Azerbaijani activists have called for thorough investigations into other suspicious deaths of anti-Aliyev activists in Europe. These include Bayram Mammadov, who Turkish authorities claim drowned in Istanbul in 2021, and Huseyn Bakikhanov, who Georgian authorities said fell from a hotel in Tbilisi the same year.
