Murder of Avaz Hafizli

Avaz Hafizli was an Azerbaijani journalist and blogger who worked as a reporter covering various issues, including LGBT rights. He participated in rallies against media legislation adopted in Azerbaijan, organized protests demanding an end to government discrimination against LGBT citizens, and raised a rainbow flag in front of the presidential administration. According to an unnamed Azerbaijani activist who worked with him, Hafizli had also been a victim of police violence. In 2021, he chained himself to a fence near the General Prosecutor's Office to protest a perceived lack of action against threats made toward the gay community.

Hafizli faced pressure from his family and relatives due to his sexual orientation, which led him to rent his own home separate from them. Beginning in July 2021, an Azerbaijani blogger regularly used her Instagram account to make broadcasts and posts targeting the country's LGBT community, calling for violence and death against trans people and gay people. Hafizli said that after these broadcasts, he was threatened by family members. On September 5, 2021, he filed a complaint about the blogger's actions at a police station and publicly stated on social media that she would bear responsibility for anything that happened to him. He repeatedly said his life was in danger and staged solo protests to draw attention from law enforcement.

On February 22, 2022, a cousin of Hafizli's, later identified as Amrulla Gulaliyev, went to a shop in Balakhani where another cousin worked and asked whether anyone was home, learning that Hafizli was alone. Gulaliyev then took a knife, went to the house where Hafizli was staying, called him into the yard, threw him to the ground, and injured his throat before stabbing him multiple times from different directions of his body. Gulaliyev then went to police and surrendered. Azerbaijani law enforcement stated that Gulaliyev was in a drunken state when he committed the crime.

Following the killing, according to the publication "Star Observer," homophobic treatment reportedly continued: police officers and doctors who arrived at the scene refused to touch or carry Hafizli's body, which had been wrapped in a dirty carpet, and his friends had to transport his body to the morgue themselves.

On July 29, 2022, Gulaliyev was sentenced at the Baku Serious Crimes Court. He was found guilty under Article 120.1 (intentional murder) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and sentenced to nine years and six months in prison.

The killing generated public reaction in Azerbaijan, with LGBT rights supporters commemorating Hafizli on social media and raising concerns about a lack of action against violence targeting the gay community. The US Embassy in Azerbaijan expressed condolences to Hafizli's family. In May 2022, a group of deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe took an initiative to adopt a resolution on threats to journalists and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, specifically referencing the murder in Hafizli's home.