[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E220-E221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CALLING FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF DR. GUBAD IBADOGHLU

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAMIE RASKIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 6, 2024

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the Government of 
Azerbaijan to immediately release Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, a courageous 
pro-democracy activist, brilliant economist, and beloved husband and 
father, who has been unjustly detained for over seven months.

[[Page E221]]

  On July 23, 2023, Dr. Ibadoghlu and his wife, Irada Bayramova, were 
forced out of their car near Baku, Azerbaijan, seized by masked 
individuals, detained, and beaten. Dr. Ibadoghlu had returned to 
Azerbaijan earlier in July from a visiting fellowship at the London 
School of Economics to care for his ailing mother. Though Ms. Bayramova 
was released hours later, Dr. Ibadoghlu was not released. Ms. Bayramova 
and her family have been denied communication with her husband and she 
continues to expenence Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from this 
harrowing ordeal. The ``charges'' that President Ilham Aliyev's 
government has used to justify Dr. Ibadoghlu's detention and 
imprisonment without trial--that he organized the production of 
counterfeit money to support a political group and, as an avowed 
secularist, disseminates material that supports religious extremism--
are so dubious and baseless that they would qualify as satire in 
another context.
  Dr. Ibadoghlu's true ``crime'' against the Aliyev regime is his 
devotion to the causes of democracy, freedom and anti-corruption in 
Azerbaijan. He is detained today because he bravely chose to return to 
Azerbaijan to care for his mother despite fleeing the country in 2017 
to teach abroad after his civic activism prompted threats of 
retaliation. As an internationally acclaimed economist, he has also 
served as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Rutgers University. He was a 2015 
Fulbright Scholar, a 2015 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the 
National Endowment for Democracy, a 2018 Prague Civil Society Center 
Fellow, and a recipient of the 2018 Civil Society Scholar Award by the 
Open Society Fund.
  During Dr. Ibadoghlu's seven-month detention, he has been subjected 
to crowded and inhumane conditions common to Azerbaijan's jails and 
denied sustained access to critical medication. Dr. Ibadoghlu's family 
is increasingly concerned that he has been denied the medication and 
medical treatment that he desperately needs to treat his chronic health 
conditions. He has additionally been repeatedly denied access to his 
legal counsel and has not received a fair trial while in custody. I 
join my fellow Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, the U.S. 
Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Baku, U.S. academic 
institutions and organizations, the European Parliament, and others in 
the international community to express my deep concerns about Dr. 
Ibadoghlu's health and demand his immediate release.
  I commend Emin Bayramli, one of Dr. Ibadoghlu's sons who lives in my 
district, and his entire family for their steadfastness in seeking 
their father's freedom from his unjust imprisonment. I also commend my 
colleague Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey for adopting Dr. 
Ibadoghlu through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending 
Freedoms Project.
  Dr. Ibadoghlu is one of far too many Azerbaijanis that the Aliyev 
regime has unjustly detained to suppress freedom and civil rights. The 
Government of Azerbaijan's poor record of respecting human rights, 
civil rights and civil liberties is a moral stain that affects free 
people everywhere. Whether they live in Washington, D.C. or Baku, Hong 
Kong or Beijing, Moscow or Kyiv, everyone should have the right to 
determine their own destiny. Dr. Ibadoghlu's unjust imprisonment must 
end immediately.

                          ____________________