Azerbaijan’s jailed opposition leader urges West to find ‘courage’ and stand up to regime amid political crackdown

NewsWorldAsiainterviewAzerbaijan’s jailed opposition leader urges West to find ‘courage’ and stand up to regime amid political crackdownAli Karimli tells James C. Reynolds from jail that Azerbaijan’s future is with Europe, not Russia - but the West must step up and challenge its record on human rightsMonday 04 May 2026 08:50 BSTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popover{"translations":{"comments":"Go to comments","share":"Share","copyLink":"Copy link","bookmark":"Bookmark","removeBookmark":"Remove bookmark"},"showComments":true,"showBookmark":true,"articleId":"b2966916","articleMeta":{"url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/azerbaijan-ali-karimli-britain-oil-b2966916.html","title":"Azerbaijan’s jailed opposition leader urges UK to find ‘courage’ and confront regime"},"popoverPlacementOverride":"bottom"}CloseRelated: Putin reacts to Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash at CSI summitFor free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsEmail*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice{"className":"sc-1ge0fwe-0","newsletterData":{"regSourceNewsletter":"IND_Breaking_Newsletter","regTitle":"Breaking News","subscriptionGroup":"breaking_news","subscriptionGroupId":"ea81aa66-1d12-4313-9b4e-6f20b0117b8f","type":"breaking_news","pathPrefix":["/news/uk/crime","/news/world","/topic/race","/topic/racism","/topic/race-and-ethnicity","/topic/diversity","/topic/ethnic-minorities","/topic/muslim","/topic/black","/topic/black-british","/topic/african-americans","/topic/systemic-racism","/topic/bame"],"title":"For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails","mobileTitle":"Sign up to our free breaking news emails","imageSrc":"https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/images/newsletter...