Khadija Ismayilova in her Baku studio.
As far as anyone knows, radio host Khadija Ismayilova is headed for or is already in jail in Azerbaijan. She has been convicted of and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in the slammer for “running an illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of power and embezzlement.” But practically everyone besides a cabal of political hacks in Baku thinks Ismayilova is getting nailed for exposing massive corruption within the administration of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev.
Here’s a YouTube statement from Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. An “outrage,” Roth calls the arrest and conviction:
Among Ismayilova’s scoops: that the Azerbaijan government awarded rights to a huge gold field to the President’s family. The administration did this through a tangled web of dummy holding companies that go as far as the United Kingdom and Panama. Her exposés have been published in Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Truthdig. “I might be in prison but the work will continue,” she vowed at her sentencing.
