Brussels, 09/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 December, the European Union criticised the arrest by the Azeri authorities of investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova on 5 December and the decision to hold her in pre-trial detention for two months on a charge of “incitement to suicide”.
The spokesperson of the EU high representative said that this was a step “against the freedom of expression, key to any democratic society”. She said that the EU would follow this case closely. “Azerbaijan needs to stand fully by its international commitments, as a member of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, to ensure the freedom of the press”, she added.
Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland called for Ismayilova's “immediate” release. He said that the journalist's arrest was “unnecessary” and that it “sends a very negative message to the civil society in Azerbaijan and to the international community”.
Ismayilova, a journalist with Radio Free Europe, has been accused of incitement to suicide, a charge that carries a prison sentence of between three and seven years if she is found guilty. She has worked, inter alia, on corruption within the regime and on human rights violations. In March 2012, she herself was the victim of discrimination (see EUROPE 10578). (CG)