Anar Mammadli is a CSO leader and election-monitoring expert with more than two decades of experience promoting electoral rights, democratic governance and civic participation. He is the co-founder and Chairperson of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS), one of Azerbaijan’s leading independent election-monitoring organisations, which documents electoral violations, conducts long-term and short-term election observation, and advocates for electoral reform. Mammadli has monitored numerous elections in Azerbaijan and contributed to international election-observation initiatives. His work has also focused on strengthening civil society, political participation and fundamental freedoms.

Anar Mammadli has faced sustained judicial harassment linked to his human rights and election-monitoring activities. Following EMDS’s critical monitoring of Azerbaijan’s 2013 presidential election, he was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to five and a half years’ imprisonment on charges widely regarded as politically motivated. While imprisoned, he was awarded the 2014 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and was released in March 2016. In Mammadli v. Azerbaijan, the European Court of Human Rights later found violations of Articles 5 and 18 of the European Convention, concluding that his detention had pursued the ulterior purpose of silencing and punishing him for his election-monitoring activities.

EMDS reported serious irregularities during Azerbaijan’s February 2024 presidential and September 2024 parliamentary elections. Ahead of COP29 in Baku, he also co-founded a civil society initiative connecting environmental and climate issues with human rights and civic participation. On 29 April 2024, he was arrested again and subsequently charged with multiple financial, smuggling and document-related offences, which he denies. His prosecution has been condemned by international human rights organisations and Council of Europe bodies as part of the broader crackdown on independent civil society in Azerbaijan. On 7 September 2026, the Baku Court for Grave Crimes sentenced Anar Mammadli to 13 years’ imprisonment, to be served in a strict-regime correctional institution. The court also deprived him of the right to hold certain positions for three years. The judgment followed a trial criticised for serious violations of fair-trial.

He was convicted on multiple criminal charges, including money laundering, tax evasion, and other alleged financial and economic offences. He and his co-defendants have consistently rejected all charges, maintaining that the criminal proceedings against them are politically motivated and linked to their legitimate and professional works within civil society. International organisations recognise him as a political prisoner.