Azerbaijan has deployed Pegasus against journalists, activists, and opposition figures. In late 2025, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree creating MIRAS, a centralized digital analytics platform run directly by the State Security Service. Full operational status is scheduled for May 2026.
MIRAS is a permanent surveillance backbone under secret-police control, designed to aggregate digital traffic across the country into a single monitored system. Azerbaijan built this while legal proceedings against its surveillance practices were already active at the European Court of Human Rights.
Access Now filed an amicus curiae brief at the ECtHR challenging Azerbaijan's surveillance apparatus. An amicus brief is a third-party legal submission. It places evidence and argument before the court that the state's practices violate the European Convention on Human Rights without making Azerbaijan a formal defendant in the proceedings. The ECtHR has previously ruled against mass surveillance regimes, including the UK's GCHQ programs, on grounds of disproportionate intrusion and no independent oversight.
The Azerbaijani government is not waiting to find out what the court thinks. MIRAS advances on a fixed schedule. When Pegasus infections were confirmed on devices belonging to Azerbaijani journalists and activists by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International's Security Lab, nothing happened. No international body imposed sanctions. No commercial vendor suffered lasting damage from the relationship. The pattern held. Deploy, deny, continue.
MIRAS is the next phase of that pattern. Targeted spyware is expensive, requires ongoing vendor relationships, and is at least deniable under attribution. A state platform that aggregates communications, traffic patterns, and movement data nationwide is permanent, cheaper at scale, and wholly owned. Azerbaijan is institutionalizing what it has always done. The State Security Service controlling a centralized analytics system is the outcome of a decade of normalized surveillance with no consequences.
ECHR proceedings move slowly. The court's backlog is substantial. A ruling against Azerbaijan's surveillance practices, if it comes, will arrive years after MIRAS has become operational and embedded in state functions. Courts rule on past conduct. They do not issue orders to shut down running infrastructure. Azerbaijan's calculation is straightforward. By the time a ruling lands, the system is already in place.
Journalists and activists inside Azerbaijan have already been individually identified through targeted spyware operations. MIRAS changes the scope. Traffic that previously required case-by-case spyware deployment can be collected systematically. Communication patterns, associations, location history, and browsing behavior become a permanent state record held by the same agency that authorized prior surveillance campaigns.
The ECtHR is one of the few venues where binding legal accountability for state surveillance is possible. Access Now's brief puts that mechanism to work. The brief is evidence submitted to a body operating on a different timeline than a government installing infrastructure on a deadline. The legal argument may eventually succeed. The surveillance system goes live in May regardless.
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FAQ
What is MIRAS?
MIRAS is Azerbaijan's new centralized digital surveillance platform, controlled by the State Security Service. President Aliyev signed it into law in late 2025 and it is set to become fully operational by May 2026.
What is Access Now's amicus brief at the ECtHR?
An amicus curiae brief is a legal submission from a non-party that places evidence and argument before a court. Access Now filed one at the European Court of Human Rights to challenge Azerbaijan's surveillance practices under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Has Azerbaijan used spyware against its own citizens before?
Yes. Citizen Lab and Amnesty International's Security Lab both confirmed Pegasus infections on devices belonging to Azerbaijani journalists and activists. No international consequences followed.
Can the ECHR stop MIRAS from going live?
The court issues rulings, not operational shutdown orders. Enforcement of ECtHR decisions requires state compliance and is overseen by the Committee of Ministers. Azerbaijan is not a formal defendant in the amicus proceedings, and the court's timeline is measured in years.
What does MIRAS mean for people in Azerbaijan trying to protect their privacy?
MIRAS centralizes surveillance at a national infrastructure level. Tools that previously offered meaningful protection against targeted spyware offer less against a system designed to collect traffic before it reaches the user's device. Reducing what enters that infrastructure is the only lever available.