SJC Warns of Critical Health Decline in Journalist Afgan Sadigov After 143-Day Hunger Strike
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
The Social Justice Center (SJC) has issued a report detailing the critical health condition of Azerbaijani journalist and editor Afgan Sadigov, who has been on hunger strike for 143 days. According to the organization, his condition has reached a life-threatening stage, and immediate action is necessary.
The SJC report states that on February 2, 2025, after months of refusing solid food, Sadigov escalated his protest by declaring an absolute hunger strike and refusing to take water. His decision came after a Georgian court extended his pre-trial detention for another three months, despite the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issuing an interim measure prohibiting his extradition to Azerbaijan.
According to the SJC, although Sadigov agreed to resume water intake on February 6 at the request of his family and lawyers, he continues to refuse essential supplements that had previously been administered through transfusions. The report highlights that his weight has dropped to 56 kilograms, over 40 kilograms less than when he was arrested and that medical professionals warn of irreversible damage to his body.
The SJC also notes that his current condition is compounded by a previous hunger strike lasting 242 days in 2020, following his second imprisonment in Azerbaijan. The prolonged starvation left him in such poor health that long-term rehabilitation and treatment abroad became necessary.
The Social Justice Center is urging the Public Defender of Georgia to create a special multidisciplinary commission to regularly monitor Sadigov's condition and enhance mediation and psycho-social support efforts. The organization is also calling on Georgian Justice Minister Anri Okhanashvili to reconsider Sadigov's extradition case, arguing that the severity of his condition and the European Court's ruling provide legal grounds for Georgia to refuse his transfer to Azerbaijan under the Law on International Cooperation in the Field of Criminal Justice.
