Alasgar Mammadli is an independent lawyer and well-known media rights expert. He has served as the Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID Azerbaijan New Media Project for the past nine years, offering legal guidance and security to media companies and journalists. In 2016,  Mammadli co-founded independent media Toplum TV which reported on politics, economic and social issues, investigations into official corruption, and allegations of voting irregularities during elections. The editor-in-chief of the TV is a well-known journalist, Khadija Ismayilova. 

On March 8, 2024, two days after the police raided Toplum TV and IDI shared offices, plainclothes officers detained Mammadli as he exited the Istanbul clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan. The men drove him away in an unmarked vehicle. Later it became known that Mammadli was detained at the Baku City Police Department. Following the arrest, the police searched his apartment, where they alleged to have found 60,000 Euros, claiming Mammadli was conspiring to smuggle foreign currency. Mammadli refutes the charges.

On March 9, 2024, the court in Baku remanded Mammadli to four months of pre-trial detention. 

According to the reports, Mammadli has serious health problems, including tumors in his throat, rectum, and prostate that require surgery. He needs hospitalization and medical treatment, which has been denied by the prison authorities. 

On June 3, 2024, the Baku Court of Appeal upheld the Khatai Court's decision on the seizure of property in the offices of Toplum TV by dismissing the defense's legal arguments that the arrests of the online media staff and the seizure of property unrelated to the alleged charges were illegal. 

On July 3, 2024, the court extended Mammadli's pre-trial detention by three months to October 6, 2024.