Use climate summit to save our dad, say children of London academic held in Azerbaijan

LONDON — The children of a London-based academic held under house arrest in Azerbaijan have urged U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to use global climate talks in Baku to press for their father’s release.

Gubad Ibadoghlu, a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a critic of Azerbaijan’s oil and gas policies, was detained in July 2023 on what human rights groups say are fabricated charges. He spent months in prison before being moved to house arrest in April.

His son Ibad Bayramov, 24, told POLITICO his father’s health was deteriorating and that November’s COP29 climate summit “might be the last opportunity” to focus international attention on his case.  

“COP29 is an opportunity like no other. If this opportunity will not be taken, for values that the U.K. government [should] stand by, then it is incredibly tough to say when this opportunity would arise again,” Bayramov said.

The case throws a spotlight on alleged human rights abuses in Azerbaijan — this year’s COP host — and the tensions they create for Starmer and his ministers, at a time when the U.K. hopes to use the summit as a staging post for re-establishing itself as a global climate leader.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said the U.K. would “continue to use our diplomatic channels to raise our concerns about the protection of freedoms and human rights in Azerbaijan,” but did not commit to raising the case at COP.

It is not yet known whether Starmer will personally attend the conference in Baku next month, but Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will go as the U.K.’s head of delegation and Foreign Secretary David Lammy is also expected to attend. 

If Starmer does go, as a head of government he would be expected to meet with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev — and Bayramov wants the U.K. PM to use any meeting to raise his father’s case.

Britain, as the biggest foreign investor in Azerbaijan, had a special responsibility to speak out, he said. The two countries have deep investment and energy ties, particularly via the oil and gas giant BP and its fossil fuel projects in the Caspian Sea.

“It’s pretty obvious that economic ties bring quite a bit of leverage to the U.K. over Azerbaijan — something that not a lot of countries in the world have,” Bayramov said.

“That gives an opportunity for the U.K. to raise issues.”

‘Acting like he doesn’t exist’

Ibadoghlu was arrested while visiting Azerbaijan last year. According to Amnesty International he is accused by the Baku government of producing, acquiring, or selling counterfeit money.

He and his family deny all charges. Amnesty said the claims are “fabricated” and that his arrest was “an apparent retaliation for his criticism of the government.”

Ibadoghlu’s family wants the Azerbaijani government to allow him to leave the country so he can receive surgery for a heart problem. They say the condition has worsened during his time in detention.

Bayramov said the governments of Germany and America had taken the lead so far in pressuring Azerbaijan over his father’s case.

“I have not seen much action from the U.K. government so far,” he added. The government had been “acting like he doesn’t exist and continuing with their economic ties,” he said.   

“My father was someone working in London for a university that has produced students that go on to become U.K. politicians,” Bayramov said. Ed Miliband himself completed a Masters degree course at the LSE in the 1990s.

The LSE has called for Ibadoghlu’s immediate release.

In a written response to a parliamentary question last month, Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said the U.K. “has consistently advocated for appropriate medical access and treatment, and the right to a fair legal process” — and pointed to a joint U.K. statement with the U.S, Germany and France posted on X more than a year ago — a response which disappointed Ibadoghlu’s family.

“You don’t solve political issues through tweets,” said Bayramov “Is this the best the U.K. government could put on the table?”

Human rights groups echoed the family’s call for a tougher stance.

“Ed Miliband should use the opportunity of COP to pressure the Aliyev regime to free political prisoners like Gubad Ibadoghlu,” said Louis Wilson, head of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness.

Polly Truscott, an adviser on human rights and foreign affairs at Amnesty International U.K, said the government needed to “go further and call for [Ibadoghlu’s] immediate, unconditional release from house arrest, for all charges to be dropped and for [him] to leave the country for appropriate medical care.”

“An effective COP29 needs to provide a forum for a free exchange of views including local actors,” Truscott added. “We hope that the U.K. government will be using all tools at its disposal to encourage Azerbaijan to ensure greater respect for human rights including freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”. 

An FCDO spokesperson said: “The U.K. has consistently advocated for Dr Ibadoghlu’s access to appropriate medical care and right to a fair legal process, and would welcome any decision by the Azerbaijani authorities which allow Dr Ibadoghlu to travel abroad to receive appropriate medical care, as required.

“We will continue to use our diplomatic channels to raise our concerns about the protection of freedoms and human rights in Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency team have been contacted for comment.