The State Security Ministry secret police arrested Shia Muslim Imam Sardar Babayev in October 2021 on treason charges. On 14 April, a Baku court extended pre-trial detention for a further five months. Human rights defender Elshan Hasanov described the treason case against Imam Babayev as "clearly fabricated". "No one believes Sardar Babayev is an Iranian spy," said exiled human rights defender Arif Yunus. Imam Babayev has already served a three-year jail term for leading mosque prayers after gaining Islamic education outside Azerbaijan.
The threat to Odesa region posed by unrecognized Transnistria has decreased after a mobilization campaign in the breakaway region failed. Locals feared that the area’s Moscow handlers could deploy them to the war with Ukraine as cannon fodder, while many potential recruits left the de-facto Moscow-controlled territory. Ukrinform.