מישל קישקה

The environment in Azerbaijan has become increasingly repressive for journalists. The media is strictly controlled by the government, leaving few independent sources of news and information. In addition to hundreds of political prisoners, at least 26 writers are currently detained, on trial, or jailed in Azerbaijan, and others are subject to harassment, threats, and violence. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Azerbaijan is among the 10 worst jailers of journalists in the world, with the second-highest number of jailed journalists per capita.

In a series of articles from 2010–2012, Khadija investigated the unethical business dealings of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family. Her reports exposed millions of dollars of business holdings in the names of Aliyev’s children, as well as other government officials who are prohibited by Azerbaijani law from business ownership. In later writing and public appearances, Khadija exposed government wrongdoings of a more personal nature, emerging as one of the strongest advocates for jailed colleagues and human rights activists persecuted by the regime. Published by RFE/RL, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and other outlets for whom she worked, her writings prompted an escalating pattern of legal harassment, short detentions, and personal smear campaigns. In 2011, an intruder installed a secret camera in her home, then attempted to blackmail Khadija with intimate scenes it captured on video. The video was made public when she refused to cooperate with the perpetrator’s demands that she “behave.”

Rights advocates have pointed to Ismayilova’s recent detention as a government attempt to avoid humiliation on the eve of the first ever European Games, an Olympic-organized event to be held in Baku in June. Since her arrest in December, Khadija has been slapped with four additional charges—embezzlement, tax evasion, abuse of power, and running an illegal business—and informed that all five charges have been combined and will be tried by the General Prosecutor for Serious Crimes. She faces a prison sentence of up to twelve years if convicted. In a separate closed-door trial on February 23, she was found guilty in a criminal libel suit.