TeliaSonera chairman Marie Ehrling. Pic: Anders Wiklund/TT(TT news agency, Sweden)

It was the previous management of Swedish telecoms giant TeliaSonera that entered an allegedly corrupt deal in Azerbaijan in which companies close to the president are thought to have walked off with hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.

 Marie Ehrling, chairman of TeliaSonera. Photo: Nordea Bank(TT news agency, Sweden)

After revelations of Swedish telecom giant TeliaSonera’s suspected involvement in a record-sized bribery scheme in Azerbaijan, demands grew in Sweden for the company to release what it knows of the controversial business deals in Eurasia.

Taxpayers in Azerbaijan lost more than US$ 600 million in a deal that made no sense for all involved except for a murky offshore deeply connected to President Ilham Aliyev.

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Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring 10 members of United States Congress and 32 staff members to a conference in Baku, according to an ethics report.

A court in Baku has indefinitely postponed the appeal of jailed journalist Khadija Ismayilova in a defamation case, theIndex on Censorship reports.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Baku office has officially closed.

By Kara Morgan

As the glittering PEN awards ceremony came to a close on Tuesday, a set of cartoons flashed onto the screen.

Investigative Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who has been jailed in Azerbaijan since last December, was honored with the prestigious PEN Freedom to Write Award at a gala in New York.

Only one in seven people in the world live in a place where coverage of politics in the media is robust and journalists can work without legal and economic problems, according to a report released by Freedom House today.

The Swedish National Press Club will honor Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova in absentia tonight with its 2015 Freedom of Speech Award at a ceremony in Stockholm.

The US State Department has put out a statement condemning the imprisonment of human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev and calling for his release and all others jailed for "exercising their fundamental freedoms".

Court guards put investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova in a sound-proof box after she received loud applause at a hearing in a Baku court, Turan News Agency has reported.

The investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who was jailed in Azerbaijan in December, will be awarded the PEN American Center’s prestigious Freedom to Write Award.

Azerbaijani officials linked to human rights abuses should be subject to targeted sanctions by the United States, according to an open letter signed by a group of non-governmental organizations, former diplomats and activists.

The man who accused Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and OCCRP journalist Khadija Ismayilova of driving him to attempt suicide has withdrawn his accusation,RFE/RL reports.

A coalition of human rights groups and sports organizations has claimed that human rights abuses will overshadow the European Games to be hosted by Azerbaijan in June.

Khadija Ismayilova, the investigative journalist jailed in Azerbaijan, has been allowed to see her family for the first time since her December arrest.

A court in Baku has dismissed an appeal by investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova against her imprisonment and struck one of her lawyers from the case.

Khadija Ismayilova, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and OCCRP investigative journalist detained in Azerbaijan, has written a letter sharply criticizing the government of Azerbaijan and the West’s inaction in the face of human rights abuses.

Officials in Baku today extended the pre-trial detention of investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova.