Washington. Following Friday's arrest and pre-trial detention of
Khadija Ismayilova, investigative journalist and contributor to RFE/RL's
Azerbaijani Service, by authorities in Azerbaijan, U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Ben
Cardin (MD) issued the following statement:
"I am deeply concerned about the
detention of Ms. Ismayilova, who has been the target of unrelenting persecution
by the government of Azerbaijan because of her efforts to expose corruption
within the country, as well as her advocacy on behalf of political
prisoners. The current charges against
her are bizarre and only seem designed to silence one of the few independent
voices left in Azerbaijan.
"Ms. Ismayilova was scheduled to
testify in front of the U.S. Helsinki
Commission on November 19, 2014, but was prevented from attending due to a
government-imposed travel ban related to a different legal case. The current
charge levied against Ms. Ismayilova of
'incitement to suicide' is just an escalation of the years of harassment by the
authorities that she has endured.
"As a participating State of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Azerbaijan has committed to respecting human
rights - including freedom of the media - and the U.S. Helsinki Commission once
again calls on the government of Azerbaijan to live up to its promises and
immediately end its harassment of all journalists, including Ms.
Ismayilova."