Ismayilova Archives

Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court ordered that RFE/RL journalist Khadija Ismayilova be released from custody after reducing her prison term from 7 1/2 years in custody to a suspended term of 3 1/2 years, RFE/RL reports.

The court made the decision on Wednesday, May 25 after hearing an appeal by the journalist.

Ismayilova was detained in December 2014 and sentenced in September 2015 on tax-evasion and embezzlement charges. Western governments and international press-freedom groups long called for her release.

The charges have widely been seen as retaliation for her award-winning investigative reporting linking the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to corruption.

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Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova

The imprisoned Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova says this week’s revelations of massive bribes in the Azerbaijani telecoms industry explain why she is in jail today. Her statement is published on the website of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Ismayilova says that the question of why the state’s share was sold so cheap has always been there. When her investigation made clear that those companies were related to the president’s regime, the answer to that question became obvious. “Now it appears they did not even pay for those shares. It is an obvious bribe,’’ she added and highlighted that this is a shame for Azerbaijan and for the Swedish government.

According to Ismayilova, this story explains why TeliaSonera was not so willing to answer her questions. A year before the investigation, there was a Global Internet Governance forum in Baku. Ismayilova asked a representative of TeliaSonera who its shareholders were. Later on, she investigated the issue and found out. That was her last investigation.

“This investigation, along with others, is the reason for my arrest. More investigations of this kind are needed. That’s because black money helps governments to keep their nations enslaved. Plus, it strengthens the notion of that ‘Europeans are also involved in corruption,’ thus, people lose the confidence in the existence of alternative and corruption-free societies,’’ Ismayilova notes.

When it comes to Azercell, Ismayilova highlights it is very dangerous for information technologies to be in the hands of one clan. And now there is not any communication or internet in Azerbaijan that is beyond the control of the Aliyevs.

Swedish-Finnish telecommunications company TeliaSonera is suspected of giving extremely large bribes, at least 6 billion kroner (about $ 800 million.) in the course of the company’s work in the Azerbaijani mobile communications market. If the information is confirmed, this will become the largest corruption transaction in the history of the Swedish business. The investigation was conducted by the journalists of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) with the Swedish public SVT TV’s “Mission: Investigation” program and TT agency.

Details of TeliaSonera offshore scandal revealed: Aliyev clan stole US$ 600 million from Azerbaijanis