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.