Azerbaijani Student Arrested in Iran on “Spying” Charges

Baku confirmed this week that an Azerbaijani student who went missing three months ago is detained in Iran, where he is facing criminal charges. Farid Safarli’s mother earlier announced that he was accused of espionage.

The university student went missing in early March after he traveled to Iran reportedly to meet his Iranian girlfriend. 

There had been no news of his whereabouts until his mother, Dilara Askarova, said on June 2 that she was contacted by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry with the news that Safarli is held in Iran on espionage charges.

In a Facebook post, Askarova said her son was “being tried in Iran without defense” and asked Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “to help provide a lawyer for him."

On June 5, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said Baku had “received official information from the Iranian side that the person was detained and charged and that a criminal case was launched against him.”

Bayramov did not provide details about the accusations against the young man.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan reiterated its call on its citizens not to travel to Iran “unless it is necessary.”

“Those who visit are strongly advised to exercise increased caution," a Foreign Ministry statement read.

Baku and Tehran have often had strained relations, with Azerbaijan accusing the Islamic Republic of trying to destabilize its north-western neighbor. Azerbaijan also criticizes Iran for allegedly backing Armenia in the long-standing conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In turn, Tehran has long accused Baku of fueling separatist sentiments among its sizable ethnic Azeri minority. The Islamic Republic also fears that Azerbaijani territory could be used for a possible attack against Iran by Israel.

In January, Azerbaijan halted the operation of its embassy in Tehran after what it called a "terrorist attack" that killed the diplomatic mission’s head of security and wounded two others. Baku blamed the attack on the Iranian secret services.

Azerbaijani authorities have also suggested that Tehran may be connected to an attempted assassination of a lawmaker with strong anti-Iranian views in March.