Amnesty International: Investigative reporter faces harassment

Khadija Ismayilova – an outspoken investigative journalist in Azerbaijan – fears arrest after being harassed by the authorities and prevented from leaving the country. She has long been targeted by the authorities for her critical reporting and is currently facing criminal trial on politically motivated libel charges.

Khadija Ismayilova, a well-known investigative journalist and a Radio Free Europe reporter has been an outspoken government critic and has published several articles exposing corruption and human rights violations.

On 12 October Khadija Ismayilova was prevented from leaving the country to attend an international conference on freedom and human rights issues in Prague, Czech Republic, as a result of a travel ban issued by the Prosecutor’s Office, ostensibly because she is a witness in an ongoing criminal case. Prior to the travel ban, on 3 October she was searched and detained for four hours at Baku International Airport on her way back home from Strasbourg, France, where she had briefed members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the deteriorating human rights situation in Azerbaijan.

Khadija Ismayilova is also standing a criminal trial for defamation. On 30 September a criminal case was launched against her by a private individual, who alleged that Khadija Ismayilova had defamed him by publishing a document which revealed informant. This came after Khadija Ismayilova had posted a document on the internet with information on the recruitment of informants by the Azerbaijani security services. Although she had erased all the names of individuals in the document to protect their privacy, the same document was also published by another user without erasing the names. Khadija Ismayilova denied any connection with the latter publication.

Amnesty International is concerned that the criminal case of defamation against Khadija Ismayilova is politically motivated and is yet another step in the continuing harassment and intimidation she has been facing due to her work on human rights issues in the country. Moreover, defamation should not be a criminal offence, but should be treated as a matter for civil litigation by the injured party. Plans to decriminalize defamation in 2012 were previously stated in the National Action Plan on Human Rights on 27 December 2011, but no action has yet been taken. -0-