Farid Safarli

Farid Safarli

Azerbaijani Student

Biography

Farid Safarli is an Azerbaijani national who studied at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany.

Safarli’s profile is based on an interview of him by UANI and on news reports.

“I am so ordinary a person that I never imagined that such a horrible thing could happen to me.”

Arrest

Safarli traveled from Germany to Iran in February 2023 to visit his girlfriend, an Iranian. The regime detainedhim on March 4, 2023, while he was en route to the airport to return to Germany. He was riding to the airport in a taxi with his girlfriend when suddenly the doors to the car were opened and men grabbed them, covered Safarli’s eyes, and took the two to their own car.

Safarli’s mother, Dilara Asgarova, was not informed of her son’s arrest.  She had no idea where he was—he had simply vanished.  She traveled to Iran to look for him, but the authorities did not help her. “There was no information about Farid in the system of law enforcement agencies,” Asgarova said to Voice of America. “Some agencies even refused to check the system.”  The Iranian embassies in Germany and Azerbaijan also did not provide her information on her son’s status.

“They said that if Farid had committed a misdemeanor, there would have been information about him in the system,” Asgarova added. “But information about felonies does not appear in the system. I asked what constitutes a felony? And they said espionage and other crimes. So, we have not been able to get any information about Farid so far.”

The Iranian hospital at which Safarli’s girlfriend interned gave Asgarova conflicting information. Initially, they told her that the girlfriend had been on leave for 20 days. Later, they denied that she had worked at the hospital at all.

Treatment in Captivity (Part One) 

Safarli was immediately brought to a detention facility, where his captors told him that he would be executed, as that is what happened to spies in Iran.  Safarli’s interrogator told men to take him to be executed, and he was walked to a small cell.  He was taken to court to be charged, where he was asked to explain why he had come to Iran.  Safarli was then taken to a special Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) detention center in Qom.  He was kept in solitary confinement there in a small room for 23 hours a day, and was interrogated in his cell without warning. 

When Safarli told his interrogators that he had appendicitis and had a fever and needed to go to the hospital, they told him that he was lying and ignored his condition for three days.  After that they finally took him to the hospital, where he was operated on.  He was brought back to prison the day after his appendectomy and his captors resumed interrogating him that same day. During the interrogation, those questioning Safarli stood behind a wall where he could not see them.One of the interrogators spoke to him in English and expected answers in English, while the other questioned him in Azerbaijani.  The questions were accompanied by demands that he confess and threats of torture if he did not.  The interrogators insulted Safarli, his family, and his homeland, but did not torture him.

The interrogators also said they were very concerned about the improving relationship between the governments of Israel and Azerbaijan. They asked Safarli why Azerbaijan had closed its embassy in Tehran.They also asked what he thought about Iran’s nuclear program and whether he thought Iran had a nuclear weapon.  

After two months in solitary confinement, Safarli was brought back to the Sahili general prison in the city of Qom at the end of April 2023.  When Safarli saw the conditions there he asked to be taken back to solitary.  Up to 300 people were kept in one cell, in dirty, unhygienic conditions.  Political prisoners, drug users, rapists, and others were all housed together.

On May 1, 2023, Safarli was finally allowed to call the Azerbaijani consulate in Iran. He met with a consular official for the first time on June 1.  Safarli was also permitted to call his family for the first time in May 2023.

Trial

Safarli was brought to the First Branch of Qom’s Revolutionary Court for first time on May 28, 2023. He wasnot informed of his judicial hearing in advance. He was initially accused of espionage inside Iran for an unspecified foreign country, but the charge was later changed to intention to commit espionage.  

Judge Ansari told Safarli that while the indictment did not specify Israel as the country he spied for, they knew about Israel-Azerbaijan ties and the “shameful” conduct of the Azerbaijani government and its president, Ilham Aliyev.  Safarli retorted, “Am I Ilham Aliyev”?  The judge replied that he should be thankful that he was not Ilham Aliyev, because if he were he would’ve been executed.  Ansari said that it would take time but eventually Azerbaijani government officials, including Aliyev, would be brought to court in Iran and the judge himself would sign Aliyev’s death warrant.  The judge also denied Safarli a translator and spoke to him in Farsi, but one of the soldiers sitting next to him happened to speak Turkish and translated for Safarli.  Judge Ansari also asked Safarli why he didn’t pray, since he was a Shiite Muslim, and asked him the name of the 12 imams and the daughter of the prophet Muhammad. Ansari reproved Safarli for not knowing that information and for being a “bad Muslim” by not praying and fasting.

After that hearing, Safarli stayed in Sahili Prison for two months without further word on his status.  On July 19, 2023 he was brought to court for the second time, before the same judge.  Judge Ansari asked Safarli the same questions and said they would take revenge on him for deceiving his unwitting girlfriend in the course of his espionage.  Safarli, losing his cool, replied that the judge didn’t care about his girlfriend—even aboutwhether she was dead or alive. At the end of the session the judge said he had changed the charge to “intention to commit espionage.”  Safarli asked Judge Ansari to show him the evidence against him.  Ansarisaid the charge was based on the judge’s own knowledge and experience. The judge said that the charge against Safarli had been proven and that the defendant would be sent a letter informing him of the sentence that had been imposed.  Safarli has also asked for a lawyer and the judge said that the judiciary would not provide lawyers for friends of Israel.  

Safarli’s mother said:

During the trial, [Safarli] was accused of paying for the rent of an apartment in euros, and not in local currency. A few days before his departure, a hidden camera was installed in this apartment and his conversation with [his girlfriend] in English was recorded. The translation of this conversation was heard in court. According to Farid, the translation was greatly distorted. For example, Farid complained that the Internet was weak and he could not contact me. This was presented in court as evidence of Farid holding a secret meeting. He was further accused of calling Iran 22 times from a German number in 2022. Farid demanded to prove that he called, but he did not receive an answer.

The Azerbaijani consulate asked the Iranian foreign ministry for permission to attend the court sessions but were denied access.

Sentencing

On August 15, 2023, Safarli finally received a letter informing him that he had been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. 

Appeal

Safarli hired a private lawyer and appealed to the Supreme Court but his appeal never received a hearing.  The Court simply read the appeal documents and upheld the lower court’s sentence in September 2023.  

Treatment in Captivity (Part Two)

Safarli was transferred to Qom Central Prison at the end of August.  He was held in a combined ward for political prisoners and elderly and sick ones. He was held in a cell that measured about 70–80 square meters with up to 50 prisoners.  The prisoners’ access to water was interrupted at times.  

In October 2023, Safarli and eight other political prisoners were told that they were going to be transferred to Orduga Central Prison in the city of Qom.  They were kept there for six months, but in March 2024 he and his fellow political prisoners were told in the middle of the night that they would be taken back to Qom Cental Prison.  This time he was housed solely with political prisoners.

In December 9, 2023, Safarli was arbitrarily taken back to solitary confinement for one day to be interrogated.  During that interrogation Safarli asked why he had been brought back, since he had already been sentenced.  The IRGC interrogator replied to forget about the courts—the Revolutionary Guards would determine when Safarli would be freed.

A prison official once told Safarli that in Iran, there was freedom of speech—you could say whatever you wanted to yourself.  However, the official added, Safarli would be better off not speaking against the government to anyone else if he wanted to get free sooner.  

Release

The government of Azerbaijan announced on January 20, 2025, that Safarli had been released and had returned to Azerbaijan “within the framework of international legal cooperation and mutual procedure.” 

Safarli told UANI that he was exchanged for an Iranian spy imprisoned in Azerbaijan.  An IRGC official told Safarli as he was on his way to the exchange that if Azerbajian had not agreed to the swap, Safarli would have been brought back to court and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

As a condition of Safarli’s release, he was forced to deliver prepared remarks on camera saying that he had no complaints with the Iranian judicial system or the IRGC, that everything in his case had been done legally, and that he was in good physical and mental health.  He was also compelled to sign a paper to that effect.

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