The relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan, tense during former President Joe Biden’s administration, has blossomed over the past year, but the detention of two journalists who worked with U.S. outlets remains a significant source of tension.

Azerbaijan has been gripped by high-profile criminal cases involving employees of media outlets critical of the government over the past three years, the biggest of which involve the independent outlets Meydan TV and Abzas Media. In both cases, the charges leveled against the defendants aren’t political — the charges brought against the seven defendants in the Abzas Media case are currency smuggling, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery, while the 12 defendants in the Meydan TV case were charged with similar smuggling and financial crimes. However, their defenders have decried the prosecutions as based entirely on their journalistic work.