Ministry of Taxes Sues Khadija Ismayilova

Baku / 21.02.18 / Turan: At the Baku Administrative Economic Court No. 1, a tax claim against the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was opened, regarding the tax debt of 63,138 manat.

During the meeting, Ismayilova and her representative Yalchin Imanov presented a written protest to the court.

Ismayilova worked the head of the Baku bureau Radio Azadlig from July 2008 to October 2010. She is accused of evading payments of a profit tax of 45,145 manat to the state budget.

She is also charged with concluding not labor contracts, but service contracts with employees for the purpose of paying 4% of the simplified tax instead of 14% of the income tax. Thus, she is accused of creating conditions for not paying a tax for a total of 17,992 manat.

However, the legal representative Yalchin Imanov drew the court's attention to the fact that the Supreme Court acquitted Ismayilova under Article 179 (embezzlement). Therefore, the charge associated with 17,792 manat has lost relevance.

"Secondly, the Ministry of Taxes also demands the same amount from the Azerbaijani representative office of Radio Azadlig. However, Radio Azadlig is a non-profit organization, so the charge of profit-making is not justified. How, in this case, could it be subject to profit tax? " Imanov wondered rhetorically.

The lawyer drew attention to the fact that on the basis of the appeal of the Ministry of Taxes, Ismayilova's bank account was arrested. Information about the personal account is considered a bank secret. The bank was supposed to provide information about Ismayilova's accounts only on the basis of a court decision. However, without a court decision, information about the account was transferred to the Ministry of Taxes. Moreover, the Ministry of Taxes does not have a subjective right and cannot act on this issue as a plaintiff. This is in the competence of court executors, said the lawyer.

Judge Aida Huseyn withdrew to the meeting for a decision on the protest, and therefore the preparatory meeting was postponed to February 28.

Ismayilova herself in a conversation with a correspondent of Turan noted that in the judicial verdict, no financial obligations were imposed on her. She called illegal freezing her bank account without warning about the need to pay the incriminated debt.

It should be noted that Ismayilova's account was frozen in November 2018 after she was awarded a number of international monetary awards.

Ismayilova was arrested on December 5, 2015 and was subsequently sentenced to 7.5 years imprisonment on economic charges. She was found guilty under articles 179.3.2 (embezzlement on a large scale), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 213.1 (tax evasion) and 308.2 (misuse of powers) of the Criminal Code.

The journalist rejected the charges and said she was arrested for her anti-corruption investigations.

On May 25, 2016, the Supreme Court released her from prison, replacing her imprisonment by 3.5 years of imprisonment on probation. She was not charged under art. 179 and 308. -0-