Your trusted source

“We are deeply troubled by restrictions on civil society activities, including on journalists in Azerbaijan, are increasingly concerned that the government there is not living up to its international commitments and obligations when it comes to these issues, so it is something that is deeply troubling to us. Folks on the ground certainly have raised this issue with them many, many times,” stated Marie Harf, the US Deputy Spokesperson at a Daily Press Briefing answering the question of the Radio Liberty journalist.

In Washington, Radio Free Europe’s editor in chief, Nenad Pejic, issued a statement condemning Khadija’s arrest, reports The New York Times. “The arrest and detention of Khadija Ismayilova is the latest attempt in a two-year campaign to silence a journalist who has investigated government corruption and human rights abuses in Azerbaijan,” Mr. Pejic said. “The charges brought against her today are outrageous. Khadija is being punished for her journalism,” he noted.

The article also reads that the Azerbaijan government released a 60-page manifesto, written by the presidential chief of staff, Ramiz Mehdiyev, in which he complained of modern “colonialism” by the United States, and accused employees of Radio Free Europe’s Azerbaijan service, of treason and seeking to please “patrons abroad.” Mr. Mehdiyev singled out Ms. Ismayilova as “the best example” of journalists working against the government.

The article notes that Ismayilova has long been a target of the government. She and her supporters had expected that she would be arrested, though the precise timing of Friday’s order, for at least two months of pretrial detention, came as a surprise.

Earlier this year, Ms. Ismayilova said she was summoned for questioning and accused of leaking government secrets to two United States Senate staff members whom she had met in Baku. In October, she was detained for four hours at the Baku airport upon returning from a trip to Strasbourg, France, the seat of the European Parliament, the article reads.

It is also noted that her arrest, however, was apparently related to accusations by a man, Tural Mustafayev, who said that she had nearly driven him to suicide. Friends of Ms. Ismayilova said that Tural Mustafayev had been working for the authorities all along.

Note that Khadija Ismayilova was turning into a target of attacks by the government for her journalistic activities. Ismayilova is an author of a number of journalistic investigations on corruption in the highest echelons in Azerbaijan. In recent years, she is conducting talk show in the Azerbaijani Service of “Radio Liberty”.