19/05/2015 19:43
Jailed Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova to get John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award
Washington-based National Press Club will honor an Azerbaijani reporter, Khadija Ismayilova – arrested in December, 2014 - with John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award in July, the National press Club reports.
The organization says Ismayilova is well known for hard-hitting reporting, including on the financial dealings of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and alleged corruption in his government. She is one of nine reporters known to be jailed in Azerbaijan on similarly trumped up charges, in addition to a greater number of political prisoners who are not journalists, according to human rights groups.
The organization notes that Azerbaijan will soon draw considerable attention as it hosts the European Games in June. "We hope the world will be mindful, as it watches the European Games, of the plight of reporters and others in Azerbaijan who are merely exercising basic human rights of self-expression," said National Press Club President John Hughes stressing that reporting the news is not a crime.
On 5 December, 2014, the well-known Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was detained after being questioned at the prosecutor's office. Baku Sabail District Court made a decision to detain her on charges of incitement to suicide. Khadija Ismayilova has become the target of attacks of the government for her journalistic activities. Ismayilova is an author of a number of journalistic investigations of corruption in the highest echelons of power in Azerbaijan. In recent years, she was conducting a talk show in the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty.
The arrest of Ismayilova has been followed by a wave of condemning statements by a number of international organizations and influential representatives from various states. Protest actions have been organized in her support in various countries; and prominent international editions released articles covering the topic. Nonetheless, on 13 February, 2015 Prosecutor General's Office of Grave Crimes Investigation Department of Azerbaijan charged the journalist under articles 179.3.2 (large-scale appropriation), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship with large income) and 308.2 (abuse of power with grave consequences) under Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. She faces up to 12 years in prison.
In early April Azerbaijani journalist Tural Mustafayev – under whose complaint well-known Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova had been arrested last December – wrote a letter to Zakir Garalov, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, saying that he wanted to withdraw his appeal. In response to the question why he had lodged an accusation, Mustafa told the journalist that he was under emotional stress in that period.
