A resident of Crimea, he was detained on October 12, 2016, after a search and taken into custody on charges related to alleged involvement with the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is not linked to terrorism. On June 18, 2019, he was sentenced to 17 years in a high-security colony. However, on December 24, an appellate court reduced his sentence by six months. In March 2020, shortly after arriving at the colony, Abdullayev was placed in solitary confinement. He was subsequently sent to punitive isolation multiple times, which severely impacted his health. He was later suspected of having tuberculosis. In November 2024, it was revealed that Abdullayev had lost hearing in one ear.