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FILE – In this Sunday, March 2, 2014 file photo, Azeri Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is seen in Baku, Azerbaijan. A court in Azerbaijan has convicted investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova of several financial crimes and sentenced her to 7½ years in prison, in a case widely criticized by human rights organizations. The Baku court convicted Ismayilova on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015 of embezzlement, illegal business activity, tax evasion and abuse of power, but found her not guilty of inciting a colleague to commit suicide. Ismayilova, who was jailed in December, was a contributor to U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (AP Photo/Aziz Karimov, file)
Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday in Azerbaijan. On Wednesday, The Washington Post published an editorial calling for a stronger condemnation from the State Department.
As the 39-year-old journalist pointed out in her final court testimony, the charges brought against her were similar to those she has leveled against Mr. Aliyev and his family in her reporting: illegal business activity, tax evasion and abuse of power. The difference, she said, is that she backed up her allegations with facts, witnesses and documents, while the case against her relied on crudely forged statements and easily disproved claims about her relationship with Radio Free Europe. Not a single witness testified against her in court.
“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.”
Reporters Without Borders reports that Ismayilova was arrested on Dec. 5.
After crushing all media pluralism, the Azerbaijani authorities have been orchestrating an unprecedented crackdown on independent journalists since last year.
Rishi Iyengar wrote about the charges for TIME on Tuesday.
Ismayilova has doggedly reported on the massive funds appropriated by the family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who described her as an “enemy of the government” in a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks in 2009. The cable also reveals that he asked the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan to have the 39-year-old journalist sacked from the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty network where she worked as a local bureau chief from 2008 to 2010. Authorities raided and shut down the offices of Radio Liberty in the country’s capital Baku in December 2014, prompting Washington to express deep concern about the treatment of the country’s nonstate media.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published a video showing reactions from journalists in Moldova.
Last year, Committee to Protect Journalists named Azerbaijan among the top 10 countries with the worst records for jailing journalists. Azerbaijan ranks 162 out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ 2015 World Press Freedom Index.
It was a bad year in Azerbaijan, which registered one of the biggest falls in score of any country in the index. The regime is in the process of silencing the few remaining independent voices that it has not already managed to suppress. Outspoken journalists and bloggers are being given the same choice as human rights defenders – shut up, flee abroad or be jailed on trumped-up charges.
On Wednesday, Ismayilova’s mother wrote an editorial for The Guardian about her daughter’s sentence.
The government thought throwing Khadija in jail would solve their problem. But they haven’t succeeded in silencing my Khadija. As she told the court, despite all they have done to her, she didn’t break, and she didn’t bow. Khadija has always been a fighter, ever since she was a little girl. She always watched over her two sisters, always pushed me to make sure they did well in school. When Khadija was 10 she wrote a poem about the nuclear bomb. It read something like: “Ban the bomb, no more wars, let people live in peace.” From then on, it was clear to me she wanted to change the world for the better. Now that she’s in jail, she’s writing poetry again.
