Rights groups say charges against Khadija Ismayilova are politically motivated because of reports exposing state corruption. Caucasian Knot reports

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Azerbaijan has extended the detention of an award-winning investigative journalist ahead of the start of the European Games next month.

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Khadija Ismayilova, who has published a series of articles critical of the authoritarian government, was detained in December after being summoned to the prosecutor’s office in Baku.

She is being held on charges ranging from tax evasion and abuse of power to inciting a man to attempt suicide, which carry potential prison sentences of up to seven years.

She was recently awarded the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, which was accepted by colleagues on her behalf.

Ismayilova and international rights groups say the charges against her are politically motivated because of her work exposing corruption among the government elite. In the past the government has tried to silence Ismayilova, the country’s leading investigative reporter, by blackmailing her with sex tapes.

“Stay strong,” Ismayilova told journalists in court this week, after an appeal against her pre-trial detention was indefinitely dismissed. “I expect good investigative journalism from you. I am strong. Do not worry about me.”

Index on Censorship chief Jodie Ginsberg said the journalist’s treatment betrayed the spirit of the Olympic charter.

“The continued judicial harassment of Khadija Ismayilova by Azerbaijani authorities is cruel and unjust,” she said in a statement. “As Azerbaijan prepares to host this summer’s inaugural European Games, it is worth remembering that the treatment of Ismayilova flies in the face of the principles of press freedom and human dignity enshrined in the Olympic Charter.”

In announcing Ismayilova’s award, Pen executive director Suzanne Nossel said: “Khadija Ismayilova knows no fear. Again and again she has unearthed and exposed stories that have cast a harsh light on widespread corruption and self-dealing at the highest levels of the Azeri government.”

Ismayilova is a contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who say the charges against her have “no basis in reality”.

After her arrest RFE/RL’s chief editor, Nenad Pejic, said it was yet another attempt in a two-year campaign to silence Ismayilova, who has investigated government corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan. “Khadija is being punished for her journalism,” Pejic said.

There are at least 100 political prisoners in Azerbaijan and many more journalists, campaigners and activists have been subject to harassment and censorship.

Reporters Without Borders has launched a petition calling for Ismayilova’s release in advance of world’s first European Games in Baku this July.

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“You are doing your utmost to burnish your country’s image abroad in the run-up to the inaugural European Games in Baku in July 2015. But the world is not fooled by your efforts on the sports field, president Aliyev,” says the petition. “Your actions will be judged in the arena of freedom of information and respect for basic rights.”

A version of this article is available on the Russian page of Caucasian Knot