A Baku court on August 23 sent Azerbaijani political analyst Bahruz Samadov to pretrial detention for at least four months on a high treason charge, which he rejects. Samadov, a doctoral student at Charles University in Prague, was detained a day earlier. Police told Samadov's grandmother her grandson was suspected of illegal drugs-related activities. Later, a lawyer called and told her Samadov "is being accused of treason." Samadov has been critical of Baku's military offensives in 2020 and 2023 that ended with Azerbaijan regaining control over the then mostly ethnic Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, click here.
