Khadija Ismayilova detained
Award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, who hosts the RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service’s “After Work” talk show, faces criminal libel charges in a case that is the latest chapter in a harassment campaign that has targeted her since she began reporting on corruption inside the ruling family in 2012, and coincides with a broader crackdown against civil society by the Azeri government. Ismayilova was detained upon her return to Baku on October 3 after meeting with members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. She has been placed under new travel restrictions pending her trial on October 17, which prevented her from attending the Forum 2000 conference in Prague, and will further prevent her from accepting an invitation from the US Helsinki Commission to testify at a congressional briefing on corruption in Azerbaijan in November. The Committee to Protect Journalists ,Amnesty International , the Institute for Reporter’s Freedom and Safety in Baku, and numerous international organizations have condemned the charges.