Nazim Baydamirli, a government critic and former member of Azerbaijani parliament, has received an eight-year prison term following conviction on extortion charges. He asserts his punishment is political, connected to comments made in support of an environmental protest in 2023.

The protest occurred in June 2023 in Soyudlu, a village in western Azerbaijan, and was sparked by opposition to plans to expand a reservoir to hold toxic waste created by gold mining operations. Ultimately, police used violent tactics to disperse the protesters, including pepper-spraying old women and making 11 arrests.

At the time of the incident, Baydamirli was living in the capital Baku. In an interview with Voice of America, he expressed his support for the protesters and criticized the government’s heavy-handed response. Within weeks after his comments were broadcast, he was arrested, accused of trying to blackmail another individual with a sex tape, according to an Interior Ministry complaint. Prior to his arrest, an Azerbaijani state television news segment about the protest alleged that Baydamirli had helped coordinate the opposition strategy. 

During his trial in late September, Baydamirli insisted he did not commit any crime, and his comments on the Soyudlu events did not violate any laws. “I have never made provocative speeches,” Baydamirli said, according to the trial transcript. 

Though the protesters were dispersed, the government took heed of the opposition. In July 2023, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the mine operator’s practices and vowed that environmental standards would be upheld. Operations at the mine were put on hold. That pause lasted just over a year. On August 5, Anglo Asian Mining, the British company running the mine, announced it had received an authorization to restart operations, including the expansion of an existing toxic waste reservoir. 

The renewed operations at the mine come as Aliyev’s administration is preparing to host the annual UN environmental summit, or COP29, in Baku, in November. The mine, along with other contentious issues, including Baku’s vanishing green space and a growing water shortage in central Azerbaijan, could potentially fix unwanted attention, from officials’ point of view, on the government’s environmental protection record.