Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/azerbaijan/)
The vast majority of people who own properties are not engaged in any misconduct or possible criminal behavior. But land deals or real estate purchases made with inexplicable funding sources can be a telltale sign of corruption.
Investigative journalists and other citizens interested in uncovering the organised crime and corruption that affect the lives of billions of people worldwide gain, with each passing day, unprecedented access to information. Huge volumes of information are being made available online by governments and other organisations, and it seems that the much-needed information is in everyone’s grasp. However, corrupt officials in governments and organised crime groups are doing their best to conceal information and to hide their wrongdoings.
Governments have arsenals of weapons to censor information. The worst are well-known: detention, torture, extra-judicial killing or surveillance. Another form of censorship gets limited attention, a kind of quiet repression: the travel ban.
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova was set free after her final appeal hearing today at the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan two days before her 40th birthday. Ismayilova, an award-winning reporter who exposed the corruption of the ruling Aliyev family, has been in prison in Baku since her arrest on Dec. 5, 2014. “There was no crime,” Ismayilova told the press upon her release. “President Aliyev and his clique decided to get rid of any criticism against them.”
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a Radio Free Europe/OCCRP reporter, was taken into custody yesterday in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the latest of a series of legal moves to put pressure on her. Ismayilova, known for her investigations into the business interests of the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, is charged in the latest case of inciting a man to commit suicide
Khadija Ismayilova is an internationally recognized investigative journalist known for her work digging into the hidden financial dealings of Azerbaijan’s first family. In jail and facing up to 12 years in prison, Ismayilova released her closing statement at her most recent trial through her lawyer. It’s published here.
In the run-up to the 2019 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg this September 26 to 29, we’re featuring one Global Shining Light Award finalist per day. Check out “The Azerbaijani Laundromat,” by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in collaboration with numerous international outlets.
Last week a court in Paris held a hearing in a defamation lawsuit against French broadcast journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard over their 2015 investigative report for the France-2 television show “Cash Investigations” in which Azerbaijan is referred to as a “dictatorship.” Richard will be speaking at #GIJC17 in Johannesburg in November.