24 September 2017, 08:10
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova appeals to Court for permission to leave Azerbaijan
On September 22, investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova appealed to the Binagadi District Court of Baku with a request to grant her the opportunity to temporarily leave Azerbaijan for participation in an international event to be held in Riga.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 8, 2016, the Supreme Court (SC) of Azerbaijan upheld the ban on going abroad for Khadija Ismayilova, who is serving her conditional sentence.
Khadija Ismayilova is well-known for her investigations of corruption in Azerbaijan. In September 2015, the court sentenced the journalist to 7.5 years of imprisonment. In May 2016, the Supreme Court replaced the imprisonment by 3.5 years of conditional sentence with a probationary period of five years.
"The Riga branch of the Stockholm School of Economics invited me to conduct a 23-day course on investigative journalism. I have addressed the Court with a request to allow me leaving the country for a certain period of time or to completely cancel the court's decision to ban my leave from Azerbaijan," Khadija Ismayilova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. And she continued: "Even in case if the Court completely lifts the ban on my leaving the country, I do not intend to leave Azerbaijan forever, since I want to continue investigative journalist's activities in Azerbaijan. The possibilities to do that from abroad are limited."
Fariz Namazly, an advocate of Khadija Ismayilova, has explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the Azerbaijani laws allow persons serving conditional sentences to leave the country temporarily with an appropriate court's decision.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.
Author: Faik Medzhid Source: CK correspondent
