In a landmark decision, a French court has sentenced one of the accused to ten years in prison for participating in an attempted assassination of exiled Azerbaijani blogger Mahammad Mirzali. The ruling points directly to the involvement of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime, marking a significant turning point in France’s response to transnational repression. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has welcomed the verdict and called for criminal proceedings against those who ordered the hit.
“It’s the first time this has been stated so clearly,” said Mahammad Mirzali after the decision.
The Rennes criminal court ruled that Mirzali was targeted solely because of his public positions—particularly his work as an independent journalist exposing the abuses of Azerbaijan’s autocratic leadership and its powerful state-owned oil and gas sector.
The court’s judgment, reviewed by RSF, reveals testimonies describing professional hitmen hired by a senior official at SOCAR (Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company) to kill Mirzali “because he spoke ill of the President of Azerbaijan” and “insulted the wife of a SOCAR executive”—or simply “to please Ilham Aliyev.” Notably, Aliyev denied any involvement in these attacks in a 2021 interview with French media.
Wiretaps also uncovered incriminating conversations in which one of the suspects admitted that he was jailed “for insulting the greybeards,” a slang term referring to high-ranking Azerbaijani state officials.
On June 3, 2025, Khayyam Hagverdiyev, a 43-year-old residing in Poland, was convicted for his role in one of three separate attempts to kill Mirzali. He had been arrested in June 2022 at a toll station near Angers while driving a vehicle containing a Magnum pistol, knives, and a GPS set to Mirzali’s home address.
“This conviction is a major step forward in the fight against transnational repression,” said Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
“But it must not stop here. In addition to prosecuting the rest of the hit squad, those who ordered these assassination attempts must be held accountable. RSF urges France, the European Union, and their partners to make the protection of exiled journalists a priority—and to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible.”
Mahammad Mirzali, who has been in exile in France since 2016, has survived multiple death threats and attacks despite being under government protection. RSF has supported him for years and has repeatedly sounded the alarm over threats to his life. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani authorities have escalated their crackdown on journalists abroad through harassment campaigns and abusive arrest warrants.
According to RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index, Azerbaijan ranks 167th out of 180 countries. France holds the 25th position.
Azərbaycan dili 
English (UK)