Court Rejected Request of Journalist to Cancel Probationary Period

Baku / 08/12/19 / Turan: The Binagadi District Court of Baku refused to satisfy the request of investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova to terminate her probationary sentence.

Known for journalistic investigations into corruption, Ismayilova was arrested in December 2014 and subsequently sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of economic crimes. In May 2016, the Supreme Court replaced the real term with 3.5 years of probation, with a trial period of five years. In August 2016, the Baku Court of Appeal reduced the suspended sentence to 2 years and 3 months, leaving the trial period unchanged.

On August 9, the Binagadi District Court examined Ismayilova"s appeal to terminate the probationary period and eliminate the criminal record. The case was examined under the chairmanship of Abbas Rzayev.

As Ismayilova wrote on her Facebook page, her sentence has expired. Moreover, most of the five-year probationary period, which starts from November 25, 2015, has expired. With all this in mind, she asked to terminate the probationary period and remove her criminal record.

However, the Binagadi court dismissed the appeal, believing that she had "not recovered", although the enforcement authority did not give such an opinion.

The probationary period obliges Ismayilova to be registered every month in the Execution and Probation Department of the Binagadi district and prohibits her from traveling abroad.

Ismayilova considers the court decision to be politically motivated and related to the continuation of her investigative journalism.

She noted that on the day when she was denied the termination of the probationary period, the Supreme Court released the grandson of Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov, who committed a serious accident, killing two people and injuring two more.

Note that earlier the Ministry of Taxes imposed sanctions against the journalist by blocking her bank accounts. -06D--