Farid Safarli, a citizen of Azerbaijan (the Country), has been handed a two-year prison sentence on charges of alleged “espionage,” as reported by a security institution-affiliated news outlet.

This news channel had previously reported on Safarli’s arrest. In March 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan disclosed his disappearance on March 4, 2023, subsequent to his journey from Germany, where he was studying at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, to Iran on February 20.
As of now, the location of Safarli’s detention remains undisclosed.

While the legal pursuit of individuals for espionage is not inherently categorized as a human rights violation, apprehensions arise regarding the veracity of these accusations. The Iranian regime frequently deploys such allegations to suppress political dissidents, and the opacity surrounding legal proceedings exacerbates doubts about the authenticity of these cases.