In the wake of the reported murder of outspoken Azerbaijani dissident Vidadi Isgandarli who was brutally beaten and stabbed to death in his house in France, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) is urging the Biden-Harris Administration to “establish a U.S. Government effort to provide increased protection to Azerbaijanis living in the United States who may be in danger of escalating transnational repression in the run-up to next month’s COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku.”

            “This shocking crime perpetrated against a leading critic of Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev is extremely concerning and has placed Azerbaijanis in the United States on high alert—especially those who are bravely exposing Aliyev’s cruel regime and its egregious human rights violations and large-scale corruption,” said Smith, senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

            “The Biden-Harris Administration needs to directly address Aliyev’s horrific and heightening transnational repression before it’s too late,” said Smith, the author of the Transnational Repression Policy Act (HR 3654) that would comprehensively enhance the U.S government’s response to foreign governments who target and persecute individuals living in the United States.

            “If top Biden-Harris officials pretend this murder was not intended to intimidate other outspoken Azerbaijanis, they will be responsible for emboldening the perpetrators and increasing the threat to other Azerbaijanis,” said Smith, who has chaired numerous congressional hearings and has visited Azerbaijan on several human rights trips as part of his longtime efforts to advocate for victims of Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses, including ethnic Azerbaijanis and Armenians.

            The murder of Isgandarli follows numerous reports detailing Azerbaijani dissidents who have been targeted and attacked in recent years around the world, including in the U.S., France, Germany and Georgia. In 2020, the Institute for Peace and Democracy noted it had been informed of “confidential information from Baku about the plans to neutralize the most active critics of the regime living in the West” and a list of individuals that Azerbaijan planned on targeting.

            Despite continuing to have one of the most repressive governments in the world, Azerbaijan is slated to host the United Nations’s COP29 Climate Change Conference in November. 

            “It is outrageous that the Biden-Harris Administration is giving credence to Azerbaijan’s propaganda that it is a ‘peacemaker’ and sending a high-level delegation to its COP29 conference while Azerbaijani dissidents in the United States and around the world are being persecuted and even killed for standing up for human rights and democracy,” said Smith, who authored the Azerbaijan Democracy Act in 2015 to promote the rule of law and respect for human rights in the country.

            “In addition to securing the safety of Azerbaijanis here at home, the Biden-Harris Administration should immediately retract its destructive statements about valuing the dictator’s ‘leadership’ and foolishly saying our countries have ‘aligned our priorities,’” said Smith, referring to comments made earlier this month by John Podesta, Senior Advisor to President Biden for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation.

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