On the night of April 4, 2026, Azerbaijani journalist Afghan Sadygov was detained in Georgia. Information regarding his arrest was initially released by his wife, who published surveillance footage showing law enforcement officers attempting to cut through the door of Sadygov’s home.

Following the news of the arrest, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia issued a statement noting that the journalist was detained for an offense under Article 173 of the Administrative Offenses Code—insulting a police officer on social media.

Afghan Sadygov’s trial took place late that same night. Tbilisi City Court Judge Tornike Kochkiani found Sadygov guilty and fined him 2,000 GEL. Additionally, he was ordered to be expelled from Georgia and banned from re-entering the country for a period of three years. The decision was announced at dawn, around 4:00 AM.

Afghan Sadygov was a critic of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s regime, for which he faced persecution in Azerbaijan. He arrived in Georgia with his wife and two minor children on December 24, 2023. Azerbaijan had been demanding Sadygov’s handover for nearly two years. His lawyers considered such a move dangerous and appealed the Georgian courts’ decisions regarding his extradition to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). There was an interim measure in place from the ECHR issued in 2025, which prohibited Georgia from extraditing Sadygov to Azerbaijan due to the threat of torture and political persecution. According to the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Sadygov’s expulsion is a grave violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Georgian legislation, used as a tool for political retribution.

The Charter of Journalistic Ethics of Georgia expresses solidarity with Afghan Sadygov and condemns his expulsion from the country. The Charter calls on international organizations working on journalists’ rights to pay close attention to Sadygov’s case, ensure his safety, and do everything in their power to protect the journalist in Azerbaijan, where he is currently located. In the assessment of the Media Advocacy Coalition, the expulsion of Afghan Sadygov is “a gross violation of international law and part of a policy directed against freedom of speech and independent journalists, which ‘Georgian Dream’ has been implementing for several years.”