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accused Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and OCCRP journalist Khadija Ismayilova of driving him to attempt suicide has withdrawn his accusation,RFE/RL reports.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

Amnesty International’s report for 2014 has condemned the response of the international community to worsening human rights abuses across the globe.

In a closed-door trial on Monday, a Baku court convicted investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova of libel and fined her 2,500 Azerbaijani manat (about US$ 2,417), according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

International groups are asking Stavros Lambrinidis, the European Union’s representative for human rights, to challenge Azerbaijani authorities this week over the jailing of a number of political activists and journalists.

Fresh charges have been filed against investigative reporter and OCCRP partner Khadija Ismayilova.

The charges, according to the journalist's lawyer, Fariz Namazly, include running an illegal business, tax evasion, embezzlement, and abuse of power.

An annual survey of press freedom calls 2014 “the worst period in Ukraine’s history since independence,” while Azerbaijani reporters are warned to “shut up, flee abroad or be jailed on trumped-up charges.”

The director of a human rights watchdog who went missing in August 2014 has been hiding at the Swiss Embassy in Baku, it emerged today.

Azerbaijan's president has signed a law that makes it easier to shut down independent media outlets that receive foreign funding.

Lobbyist’s Call for West to Champion Azerbaijan is Deceitful and Dangerous

A puff piece in the Washington Times says we should enfold tolerant Azerbaijan in a friendly hug. But, writes OCCRP's Rosemary Armao, Rep. Dan Burton's article is an affront to the people of Azerbaijan, who suffer increasingly under a repressive regime

Read more...

An Azerbaijani court has extended the pre-trial detention of Khadija Ismayilova, the Radio Free Europe and OCCRP journalist.

Novelist Khaled Hosseini has added his voice to the campaign for the release of Khadija Ismayilova, the award-winning investigative journaist imprisoned in Azerbaijan on bogus charges.

Meydan TV, one of the few remaining independent media outlets with an office in Azerbaijan, terminated its operations in Baku today following the imprisonment of an award-winning Azerbaijani journalist.

International protests are set this week over the arrest of award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova amid widespread fears that her two-month detention marks the crossing of a “red line” in human rights abuses in Azerbaijan.

Protests against the detention of Ismayilova, who wrote anti-corruption investigations for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, have been planned in Georgia and Romania; one was held in Moldova on Saturday and one in the US on Monday.

Khadija Ismayilova

New details have emerged about the bizarre case under which investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova has been imprisoned in Baku, Azerbaijan.

A former friend of Ismayilova’s broke his silence on Saturday, Dec. 6 about his claims that she drove him to attempt suicide after causing him to lose his job and threatening to spread embarrassing information about him.

Ismayilova’s lawyer has dismissed the allegations as “absurd,” noting that prosecutors possess neither facts nor evidence to support the claims.

Khadija Ismayilova arrives in court

Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a Radio Free Europe/OCCRP reporter, was taken into custody today 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. She arrived at a court hearing this morning smiling and making a V-shaped peace gesture. After court deliberations, she was taken into pre-trial detention to last two months under section 125 of the country's penal code.