Azerbaijani police have arrested the two top managers of an independent news outlet known for investigating corruption.

Some observers have linked the arrests to hints in state media that there is a "network of U.S. spies" in the country that needs to be "cleansed." This campaign comes amid worsening U.S.-Azerbaijani relations. 

On November 20, Ulvi Hasanli, the director and co-founder of Abzas Media, was arrested on his way to Baku airport for an international flight. Several hours later, Hasanli and his lawyer, Zibeyda Sadigova, were taken to Abzas' office, and police raided the facility in their presence.

According to Abzas, police claimed to have found 40,000 euros in the office. The outlet released a voice-recorded statement by Hasanli who said that the cash had been planted by the police and that he had been beaten both during his detention and later while in police custody.

Both the U.S. State Department and Amnesty International expressed concern over his detention and alleged mistreatment in custody.

The following day, Abzas' editor-in-chief, Sevinj Vagifgizi was detained as well. 

Both Hasanli and Vagifgizi have been charged with smuggling and face possible prison sentences of 7-12 years, according to Abzas. Late on November 21 Hasanli was sentenced to four months in pretrial detention and Vagifgizi to three months and 29 days. 

Hasanli has been politically active in Azerbaijan since the mid-2000s, chairing several different youth organizations. He co-founded Abzas Media in 2016.

Abzas focuses mainly on covering corruption and human rights violations in Azerbaijan. Recent investigations unearthed money laundering schemes by high-ranking officials in the country and abroad. One story in 2022 found that companies belonging to powerful people, including President Ilham Aliyev's daughters, had been declared winners in non-transparent tenders on development projects in the newly regained territories in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. 

In a statement, Abzas held President Aliyev responsible for the arrests, which it called a bid to "shut down this media outlet and prevent information about corruption crimes from reaching you."

In his audio-recorded remarks, Hasanli also said police asked him why Abzas does not glorify Azerbaijan's military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh and focuses on corruption instead.

Separately, on November 20, prominent disability rights activist Mahammad Kekalov was reportedly detained by plainclothes police officers, and the Interior Ministry has not responded to his lawyer's queries about his whereabouts. 

Another independent media outlet, HamamTimes, linked the arrests to a campaign in state media against supposed "U.S. spies" coinciding with a deterioration in U.S.-Azerbaijani relations. 

The U.S. and Azerbaijan have recently canceled bilateral meetings over disagreements on the peace talks between Azerbaijan and its archival Armenia. Azerbaijan has accused the U.S. of being pro-Armenian and biased against Baku.

Azerbaijani state television AzTV, along with other state-run and pro-government outlets, have accordingly launched a campaign against the U.S. and its international development arm, USAID, and claimed that Washington is operating a "network of spies" inside Azerbaijan.

One AzTV report that aired on November 18 was published on YouTube under the title "U.S. agents in Azerbaijan are being unmasked: When will the hunt for them begin?". 

"Now, Azerbaijan, in order to solidify its successes on the military front [against Armenia], has to win against the anti-Azerbaijan policy of the U.S., which aims to enter the South Caucasus," the narrator says in the report. 

"To that end, Azerbaijan must be cleansed of the U.S. spy network, 'American corners' set up in Azerbaijan have to be investigated, and USAID's activities have to be shut down." 

A commentary on the pro-government website Report.az on November 21 continued along the same lines. It named many civil society groups and activists it said were involved in supposed U.S. malign influence operations in Azerbaijan. It recalled Abzas' role in publicizing a protest by women's rights activists at the U.S. embassy in June and asserted that Hasanli, Vagifgizi, and Abzas were promoting "radical feminism" at Washington's behest.