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The preliminary hearing of the criminal case initiated against the Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova took place at Baku court of Grave Crimes chaired by Judge Ramella Allahverdiyeva, according the information agency Turan.

According to the report, enhanced security measures were taken up during the preliminary hearing. Dozens of people, including journalists, public and political figures, and foreign diplomats, were not allowed to enter the courtroom. This called the protest of those gathered, and they stared to applaud and chant in the corridor “Khadija!”

Meanwhile, the police cordoned off the street and barred those gathered from going up to the courtroom windows. There were 20 supervisors and only 28 observers in the room. Ismayilova was put inside a glass cage – “aquarium.” At the beginning of the trial, she said that the jail authorities were delaying her correspondence. The letter the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan sent her on June 22 she received only on July 13. “They are isolating me more and more. I feel as if I were Kamaladdin Heydarov or Ilham Aliyev. When they take me around the jail, they clear up all the corridors,” Ismayilova said.

When the Judge asked Ismayilova whether she had recusation to the court, she answered, “I know you from Avaz Zeynalli’s trial. I know that you will bring in an ordered verdict. However, all the judges here are like you, that is why it makes no difference.” Fahraddin Mehdiyev, the lawyer, pointed to the absence of illegal entrepreneurship in Khadija Ismayilova’s actions, as she was not engaged in commercial activities. Ismayilova said she had no authority to sign bank documents and she had no tax responsibilities. Referring to the accusation of inciting Tural Mustafayev to suicide, she said, “I do not want to speak about that. It is not my job to use the peoples’ weaknesses; it is rather yours. Our job is to protect the weak.”

She reported not being able to become familiar with the criminal case because she was not allowed to make notes on the materials. They promised to give her copies of the materials, but have not done that so far. The Azerbaijani journalist also insisted that the trial be video recorded. “Why can’t the trial be taken on video if the scenes of my private life were secretly shot?” the journalist asked.
Ismayilova said she had been arrested to make her stop her investigations of the business of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and his clan. “Yet, now my colleagues are doing that,” she said. The investigation and the jail administration demand that she stop publishing articles in the press, and Ilham Aliyev has personal dislike towards her, Ismayilova added.

According to the article, the Prosecutor attempted to cut her, but Ismayilova pointed that Ilham Aliyev’s name is not within the Prosecutor’s monopoly. To the appeal to seat her by her lawyers, the prosecutor answered, “Even under guard, she presses on the court. She must not be set out.” Further he said that keeping under guard is conditioned by the journalist’s security.

During the break, Ismayilova said that in Kudakhani jail, the convict Nuriya Huseynova who was torturing Leyla Yunus tells all the prisoners how she did that. Huseynova confesses that he executes the jail authorities’ order, and that she can arrange everything. After the break, the Judge ruled out the petition to stop the criminal proceedings, change the preventive punishment, let her sit next to her lawyers, etc, according to Turan.

RFE/RL reports  that a representative of the French Embassy in Azerbaijan told correspondents that he was denied entry despite rules against excluding diplomats. The trial comes after seven months of pretrial detention for Ismayilova. During that time international rights groups have repeatedly called for her release. They say the charges against her are politically motivated because she reported on Aliyev clan’s financial abuses.

Johann Bihr, Head of the Reporters Without Borders Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said that the trial of Azerbaijan’s most famous journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, was set to begin on National Press Day, July 22. The irony was too much for President Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarian regime and the start date was postponed at the last minute.

Bihr notes that the authorities in Azerbaijan usually stop at nothing to crack down on press freedom and have done so in an unprecedented manner for the past year. Pluralism has been obliterated. The few remaining independent media outlets are fighting for survival as the regime orchestrates its economic asphyxiation. The jails are full of political prisoners who include 12 journalists and bloggers.

“The last time I saw her was in September 2014, when many of us urged her to remain abroad for a period of time. The leading human rights defenders had just been arrested and she was busily trying to fill the void – compiling a list of political prisoners, arranging legal aid, and organizing assistance for the families. Her own arrest was clearly imminent. She was perfectly aware of this, but nothing could persuade her to yield one inch of terrain. Azerbaijan was her country, she was just doing her job and she was not going to let the regime tell her what to do,” Bihr writes.

After the presidency in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the Aliyev regime thinks it enjoys complete impunity. The lack of an international outcry so far suggests that it is right. Azerbaijan freely accepted its obligations as party to the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and many other treaties. These obligations include respect for freedom of information, Bihr highlights.

“If the international community needs lessons in courage, it can find them in the letters that Ismayilova smuggles out of prison. ‘Do not let the government of Azerbaijan distract your attention from its record of corruption and abuse. Keep fighting for human rights, for those who are silenced (...) Be loud, and be public. The people of Azerbaijan need to know that their rights are supported,’” Bihr writes.

The Committee to Protect Journalists also called https://cpj.org/2015/07/cpj-calls-on-azerbaijan-to-free-jailed-journalist-.php on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release Khadija Ismayilova. Nina Ognianova, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said that would be a crucial first step in addressing Azerbaijan's tarnished image which reached a new low amid the European Games in June 2015. According to CPJ research, Azerbaijan is a “leading jailer of journalists” in Europe and Central Asia.

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. 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. Protests have been organized in her support in various countries; and prominent international outlets released articles covering the topic. On 13 February 2015, the Grave Crimes Investigation Department of Azerbaijan Prosecutor General's Office 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) of Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. The journalist was fined while in jail. She faces up to 12 years in prison. In early April, Azerbaijani journalist Tural Mustafayev – under whose complaint 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. When asked why he had lodged an accusation, Mustafa told the journalist that he was under emotional stress in that period.

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