Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev missed the informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg due to a busy work schedule. Aliyev's administration also noted that his absence from the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on December 21 was due to Azerbaijan not being a member of the organization.
Blogger-political prisoner from Azerbaijan Osman Narimanoglu has been held in a pre-trial detention center for 20 months. He suffers from rheumatic disease and has increased pain in his joints. However, he was never given medical assistance.
The prisoner’s wife appealed to the leadership of the Ministry of Justice and the Penitentiary Service with a request to transfer Narimanoglu to a hospital in Baku. Previously, he was on a hunger strike.
Osman Narimanoglu was arrested in 2022 on charges of extortion. After his arrest, he stated that the charges were false. According to the accused, he was slandered by officials of the Land Reclamation Department, as well as doctors of the Goranboy and Goygol regions, about whose bribery he published materials. He was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.
Human rights activists recognized Osman Narimanoglu as a political prisoner.