Anar Mammadli

Anar Asaf oglu Mammadli (; born 1978) is a prominent human rights activist in Azerbaijan. He is active in observing and monitoring elections, and he has repeatedly criticized the conduct of elections by Azerbaijani authorities. On 16 December 2013, Mammadli was arrested and jailed, following outspoken criticism of presidential elections in October 2013. which honours "outstanding" action in defence of human rights.

Early life Anar Mammadli was born in 1978 in Yevlax, an industrial city in the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. He was raised in a typical Soviet family; his father was a civil servant who worked in a factory and was active in the labour union, while his mother was employed as a social worker. His early years were shaped by the period of perestroika, marked by both material hardship and an emerging openness in Soviet society. This era brought increased access to independent media, samizdat literature, and public discourse on topics such as Soviet repression, national identity, and the push for independence.

Mammadli's childhood also coincided with the outbreak of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the late 1980s. At the age of ten, he and his family participated in local demonstrations supporting Azerbaijan’s independence and territorial integrity. The events of Black January in 1990, when Soviet troops violently suppressed protests in Baku, and the subsequent First Nagorno-Karabakh War left a profound impact on him. The conflict displaced many people, some of whom found refuge in Mammadli’s school, where he assisted in their accommodation and support.

Mammadli's organization is a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), Network of Parliament Monitoring Organizations and the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership Program of the European Union, and Mammadli participated in numerous election observations internationally.

In addition to his activism, Mammadli has worked as a journalist, holding a variety of positions as newspaper reporter, commentator, editor and assistant to the editor in chief at “Merkez”("Center"), “Hurriyet” ("Freedom"), and “Bugün” ("Today"), from 1998 to 2002.

Shortly after EMDS published its report, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan opened a criminal case against Mammadli and he was arrested on 16 December 2013. On 26 May 2014, Mammadli was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months by the decision of Baku Grave Crimes Court. Mammadli was charged with illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, abuse of official authority to influence on the results of election, charges rejected by Mammadli and his lawyers. The trial and sentence was criticized by many international organizations and human rights groups. Amnesty International considers Anar Mammadli a prisoner of conscience, and a number of countries have called for his release.

On 17 March 2016, after almost 2.5 years in prison, Anar Mammadli was pardoned by the president of Azerbaijan, along with a number of high profile political prisoners.