A prominent, award-winning Azerbaijani journalist was released on probation Wednesday following a storm of global protests about her imprisonment, which has been widely seen as an attempt to silence a critical voice.
Advertisement
Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning reporter for USA media company Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was imprisoned after she linked the family of Azeri president Ilham Aliyev to corruption.
She vowed to continue her investigative reporting and to seek a full acquittal as she walked free Wednesday.
Ismayilova, who worked for USA -funded Radio Free Europe and was known for exposing corruption among Azerbaijan’s ruling elite, was sentenced last September on charges which included embezzlement, illegal business activities and tax evasion.
The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has welcomed Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court decision to free an award-winning investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
A cassation appeal by Ismayilova was considered by the Supreme Court, under the chairmanship of Judge Ali Seyfaliyev May 25, and the Court sentenced her to conditional imprisonment term of three years and six months.
Ismayilova has won other global honors before and after her imprisonment, including the PEN American Center’s 2015 Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, the National Press Club’s 2015 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, and the 2012 worldwide Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism award.
Ismayilova was detained in December 2014 and sentenced in September 2015 on tax-evasion and embezzlement charges.
Giorgi Gogia, regional representative of Human Rights Watch, told the AP that Ismayilova’s release was “way overdue” and urged the Azerbaijani government to release others in jail and to allow them to “work freely in the country”. Western governments and worldwide press-freedom groups have called for her release.
Amnesty recognised her as a prisoner of conscience and, along with other human rights groups, campaigned extensively for her release.
US-based NGO Freedom House, for example, said there are now more than 80 political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
Vienna-based International Press Institute, the CPJ in NY, and the Associated Press and the Press Association of the United Kingdom were the most vocal.
Advertisement
The anti-graft crusader, who is regarded as Azerbaijan’s most prominent opposition journalist, became known in the country for her probe into the wealth of President Ilham Aliyev and his family.
