Kh. Ismayilova Receives Alternative Nobel Prize

Baku / 26.09.17 / Turan: Khadija Ismayilova, a former political prisoner and observer of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Liberty, has been awarded for courageous exposure of corruption at the highest state level. The Swedish Foundation for the Right Livelihood Award Foundation awarded her with the For a Correct Lifestyle prize, which is often also called the alternative Nobel Prize.

The award was awarded for "courage and perseverance in exposing corruption at the highest state level," the Foundation said on Tuesday, September 26.

Khadija Ismayilova became the first winner of the alternative Nobel Prize from Azerbaijan.

Simultaneously with Ismayilova, the Indian lawyer Colin Gonsalves, working in the field of human rights protection, as well as the Ethiopian human rights defender Getnebers Nigussi, who is fighting for the rights of people with disabilities in Africa and around the world, received the award.

Each of them will receive 105,000 EUR. In addition, the US lawyer Robert Bilott, specializing in the field of environmental protection, became an honorary winner. He will not receive a cash prize.

On September 1, 2015, the Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced Khadija Ismayilova, an employee of the Azerbaijani bureau of Radio Liberty, on several guilty articles: misappropriation and embezzlement, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion and abuse of office. The journalist herself considered the trial politically motivated. In May 2017, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan changed the sentence from 7.5 years of imprisonment to "conditional imprisonment". -02D-