Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the release of prominent Azerbaijani opposition leader and scholar Qubad Ibadoglu. The Narimanov district court sent Ibadoglu to pretrial detention for four months on July 24 on charges of production, acquisition, or sale of counterfeit money by an organized group, HRW said. "Ibadoglu's detention falls squarely in a long-standing pattern of pursuing dubious charges against government critics in Azerbaijan," Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said on July 25. "Such spurious charges appear to serve only one goal -- to silence opposition and critical voices in the country. He should be freed at once."
