Rashadat Akhundov ( az, Rəşadət Axundov, born on August 7, 1984,

Beylagan Beylagan District ( az, Beyləqan rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the centre of the country and belongs to the Central Aran Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Fuzuli, Aghjabadi, Zardab, Imis ...

) is a youth activist and co-founder of N!DA Civic Movement. He was arrested on March 30, 2013 a few days after the protests held in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

against the non-combat deaths in the military. Akhundov was accused in preparing the riots during the protests. International human rights organization,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. He was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment on May 6, 2014, but later pardoned and released on March 17, 2016 being imprisoned for three years.

Education

Akhundov has graduated from Ali-Bayramli Private Turkish High School in 2001. Thereafter, he studied BSc in International Economic Relations at

Azerbaijan State Economic University , latin_name = , image = Azerbaijan State Economic University main building.jpg , image_upright = 1.2 , caption = Building of Azerbaijan State Economic University in Istiglaliyyat Street , motto = , established = June ...

where he was in the special talents group specializing in finance and accounting. After successfully completing his bachelor studies in

, he headed to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

in order to do his master. Akhundov graduated from

CEU Business School CEU Business School was a US-accredited and licensed management school in Budapest, capital of EU member Hungary. It was founded by a group including investor and philanthropist George Soros in 1988, and was the first school in Central Eastern Euro ...

and obtained

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree in 2007.Rashadat Akhundov, CEU Alumni and Careers

Activity

In early years of his

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

Akhundov joined Yox! Movement in 2005 and was one of the leading members. Then starting from 2006 he continued his activity in OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement. He even managed to become a member of the board for a period of time. Akhundov's activity in OL! ended up in 2010. At the same time, he was one of the founders of the Youth Rights Protection Movement initiated to protect youth activists

Adnan Hajizadeh Adnan Hikmat oglu Hajizada ( az, Adnan Hacızadə, born 13 July 1983) is an Azerbaijani blogger and one of the founders of OL! Azerbaijani Youth Movement. He was employed as an internal communications officer at British Petroleum. Early life and ...

and

Emin Milli Emin Milli (born 14 October 1979) is a human rights activist from Azerbaijan who lives in exile in Germany. He is also managing director at Meydan TV. Milli is Azerbaijani. Background Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Milli was imprisoned in 2009 for t ...

whose arrest was politically motivated. He was detained for a few days for several times due to his active participation in the street protests in 2010 and 2011. Akhundov is a co-founder of

Nida Civic Movement Nida Civic Movement ( az, Nida Vətəndaş Hərəkatı), commonly referred to as N!DA or simply Nida, is an Azerbaijani civic movement founded in early 2011 to achieve democratic and social changes in Azerbaijan. Currently it has over 350 member ...

and was one out of seven board members when he was arrested in March 2013.

Personal life

He is married and has a son who was born after his arrest in 2013. Akhundov used to work for BP as a finance analyst in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhundov, Rashadat 1984 births Living people Azerbaijani democracy activists Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Azerbaijan Azerbaijani prisoners and detainees Central European University alumni BP people Recipients of Azerbaijani presidential pardons

Education

Activity

Personal life

See also

References