Gubad Ibadoghlu

Gubad Ibadoghlu, also spelled Gubad Ibadoglu, is an Azerbaijani anti-corruption advocate, a scholar, a critic of oil and gas industry, and a prominent human rights and environmental defender, who from 2021 has been a research fellow at the London School of Economics. He was supposed to start a new teaching position at TU Dresden in 2023. However, on July 23, 2023 he was arrested in Azerbaijan and remains under investigation. The international community has condemned his arrest as arbitrary and politically motivated. Greens–European Free Alliance nominated Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu for the Sakharov Prize in September 2024. On 17 October 2024, 2024 Sakharov Prize finalists were shortlisted by MEPs. Following the secret ballot, MEPs selected the three finalists for the 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu became one of the three finalists. He was also nominated for 2025 Nobel Peace Prize by Rutgers University professor Belinda Davies.