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                    Azerbaijan Court Detains RFE Journalist

   by VOA News

   A court in Azerbaijan has ordered a [1]Radio Free Europe / Radio
   Liberty [RFE/RL] journalist held in pre-trial detention for two months.

   Khadija Ismayilova was called Friday to the court in Baku regarding
   allegations that she attempted to pressure a man to commit suicide.
   Supporters outside the court chanted her name as she was taken to a
   detention center.

   RFE/RL's editor in chief, Nenad Pejic, called the charges outrageous.
   He said her detention is part of "a two-year campaign to silence a
   journalist who has investigated government corruption and human-rights
   abuses in Azerbaijan."

   Two months ago, authorities in Azerbaijan banned Ismayilova from
   traveling abroad, preventing her from attending international meetings
   in both Washington and Prague. She had been scheduled to testify at a
   hearing on "combating corruption in the OSCE region" that was called by
   the U.S. committee of liaison with the Organization of Security and
   Cooperation in Europe.

   Ismayilova has reported extensively about the business dealings
   involving relatives of Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev.

   She has been denounced by Azerbaijani authorities on previous
   occasions, including Thursday, when RFE/RL reported that Aliyev's chief
   of staff accused her of treason. Apart from the travel ban, which
   Ismayilova said was never formally disclosed to her, she also has been
   charged in a separate case about a document that she posted on social
   media, implicating Azerbaijani secret services in a blackmail attempt
   against an opposition activist.

   The United States has criticized the Azerbaijan government in recent
   years for cracking down on civil society groups, democracy activists
   and journalists.

   RFE/RL is funded through grants from the U.S. Broadcasting Board of
   Governors, which also oversees VOA.




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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/radio-free-europe-journalist-detained
   -in-azerbaijan/2547522.html

References

   1. http://www.rferl.org/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/radio-free-europe-journalist-detained-in-azerbaijan/2547522.html