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.