Sentencing of Azerbaijani Investigative Journalist Khadija Ismayilova
Press Statement
Mark C. Toner
Deputy Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 1, 2015
The United States is deeply troubled by today’s decision of an Azerbaijani court to sentence prominent investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova to seven and a half years in prison. We are further concerned by reports of irregularities during the investigation and trial, including the apparent exclusion of witness testimony and other key evidence.
This case is another example in a broad pattern of increasing restrictions on human rights in Azerbaijan, including curtailing the freedom of the press. As Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev himself recently noted, freedom of the mass media is an integral part of democratic principles, and its violation is contrary to the interests of Azerbaijan.
We urge the government of Azerbaijan to release Ms. Ismayilova and others incarcerated in connection with exercising their fundamental freedoms. We also call on the Government of Azerbaijan to adhere to its international obligations to protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens.
Azerbaijani journalist Khadjia Ismayilova in RFE/RL Studios in Baku, Azerbaijan (RFERL/Azadliq Radiosu)
Azerbaijani Reporter Sentenced to More Than 7 Years after a Farcical Trial
The Washington Post – Editorial Board
AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT Ilham Aliyev has imprisoned nearly 100 journalists, human rights advocates, religious believers and opposition figures in the past several years, transforming his regime from a soft autocracy into one of Eurasia’s harshest police states. Few of those he has dispatched have shamed him as thoroughly, and as tellingly, as Khadija Ismayilova.
Ms. Ismayilova was sentenced to 7½ years in prison on Tuesday after one of the farcical political trials that are becoming routine in Azerbaijan, a petrostate on the Caspian Sea. Her offense was a series of hard-hitting investigative stories for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty detailing how Mr. Aliyev and his family had corruptly enriched themselves at the state’s expense. On Monday, she delivered her latest coup: a scathing dissection of her own persecution.
I am more successful in this business of finding proof than is the notorious prosecutor’s staff,” said Ms. Ismayilova, who among other scoops revealed in 2012 that Mr. Aliyev’s family was granted the rights to a lucrative gold field. “They are unable to even prepare a proper slander case.
RFE/RLive: The Case, The Verdict and Media Freedom in Azerbaijan
BBG Denounces Sentencing of Azeri Journalist Khadija Ismayilova
The Broadcasting Board of Governors today expressed outrage and dismay at the sentencing of Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative reporter and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Azerbaijani Service, and called for her immediate release.
September 1, 2015
WASHINGTON – The Broadcasting Board of Governors today expressed outrage and dismay at the sentencing of Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative reporter and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Azerbaijani Service, and called for her immediate release.On September 1, a court in Azerbaijan sentenced Ismayilova to seven and a half years in prison. Ismayilova was arrested on politically motivated charges on December 5, 2014, and has been held in pretrial detention since.
“We are appalled by today’s verdict,” said BBG Chairman Jeff Shell. “This sentence is clearly retribution for Khadija exposing government corruption and sends a warning shot to other journalists in the country. By passing down this verdict, the Azeri government has demonstrated to the international community that it disdains press freedom, supports its own impunity and has little regard for human rights.”
In a statement to the court yesterday, Khadija said that exposing the “corruption and lawlessness” of the Azeri government would not stop with her imprisonment.
“I might be in prison, but the work will continue,” she said told the court. “We wrote, informed the community, even if the price for it was arrest and blackmail…I am still happy that I fulfilled my job.”
Brave Azeri journalist Khadija Ismayilova was sentenced today to 7.5 years in prison. World should not be deprived of her voice #FreeThe20
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) September 1, 2015
CPJ Condemns 7.5 Year Prison term for Khadija Ismayilova
“Khadija Ismayilova’s trial has been a farce, yet the consequences for her, and for all Azerbaijani journalists, are gravely serious,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on authorities to overturn this verdict on appeal and for Baku’s international partners to stop turning a blind eye to the country’s human rights abuses.”
Azerbaijan is holding at least seven other journalists in jail, according to CPJ research. The country ranks among the 10 most censored places in the world.