Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Azerbaijan
Religion or Belief: Unspecified
Date of Detainment: December/3/2024
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Detainment
Rufat Safarov
Extra Bio Info:
Rufat Safarov is detained for his religious freedom advocacy.
On December 3, 2024, Azerbaijani authorities arrested Rufat Safarov, an outspoken critic of the Azerbaijani government’s unjust imprisonment of nonconforming Shi’a Muslims, just before his scheduled travel to the United States to receive the U.S. Secretary of State’s 2024 Human Rights Defender Award.
Additional Name(s): Agali
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Azerbaijan
Religion or Belief: Muslim – Shi'a
Reports of Torture: Yes
Date of Detainment: August/31/2025
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Aghali Yahyayev
Extra Bio Info:
Aghali Yahyayev is imprisoned for his religious leadership role
On August 31, 2023, Azerbaijani authorities arrested Yahyayev, a member of the Board of Directors of the Muslim Unity Movement.
On September 20, 2024, the Sumgayit Grave Crimes Court, presided over by Judge Elchin Mammadov, sentenced him to 7 years' imprisonment for "Illegally purchasing or storing without a purpose of selling narcotics or psychotropic substances" (Art. 234.1 ACC). Yahyayev's wife and other family members reported that officers beat his legs repeatedly with a baton to obtain a confession.
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: Nicaragua
Religion or Belief: Christian – Protestant
Date of Detainment: July/17/2025
Most Recent Type of Abuse: House Arrest
Rudy Palacios Vargas
Extra Bio Info:
Rudy Palacios Vargas is under house arrest for his religious leadership role and religiously based political criticism.
On July 17, 2025, masked Nicaraguan officers arrested Palacios Vargas, a pastor at La Roca Church, for his criticism of human rights violations by the government. Officers arrested him along with seven of his family members, friends, and church members. Previously, in 2018, government authorities had raided Palacio Vargas' church and sent him into exile after he prayed for student demonstrators.
In January 2026, Nicaraguan authorities placed Vargas under house arrest.