Bashir Suleymanli is a human rights defender, civil society leader and election-monitoring expert. He is the Chairperson of the Institute for Citizens’ Rights and a co-founder and former Executive Director of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS).

Through these organisations, he has worked to promote free and fair elections, citizens’ political participation, civic education, access to legal assistance and the protection of civil and political rights. 

Suleymanli played a leading role in organising independent monitoring of elections in Azerbaijan and documenting electoral violations. Following EMDS’s critical assessment of the 2013 presidential election, he was prosecuted alongside Anar Mammadli and Elnur Mammadov. On 26 May 2014, he was sentenced to three years and six months’ imprisonment on financial and administrative charges widely regarded as politically motivated. He was released by presidential pardon on 19 March 2015 and subsequently continued his civil society and human rights work.

On 14 March 2025, Suleymanli was arrested as part of the reopened “NGO case”, a broad criminal investigation targeting independent civil society representatives and organisations connected with foreign funding. The prosecution alleges that funds he received under service contracts constituted criminal proceeds. He was charged with multiple offences, including money laundering, tax evasion, and other alleged financial and economic offences.

He rejects all charges, maintaining that the criminal proceedings against him are politically motivated and linked to his legitimate and professional works within civil society. International organisations recognise him as a political prisoner.