Khadija Ismayilova's Sentence Suspended After Supreme Court Decision

Marina Walker Guevara, Deputy Director at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: "You will have to imprison us in the UK, in the US, in Romania, in Sweden and in more than 60 other countries if you want to silence Khadija Ismayilova."

Letter addressed to the Prosecutor General office:

"Please know that by imprisoning Khadija for her reporting work you are only attracting more journalistic attention to your country, your President and the ongoing crackdown on civil liberties and freedom of the press in Azerbaijan.

"Khadija does not work along. She works in teams. Her team members are located all over the world and will continue Khadija's unfinished journalistic work. You will have to imprison us in the UK, in the US, in Romania, in Sweden and in omre than 60 other countries if you want to silence Khadija Ismayilova."

Rebecca Vincent: "Azerbaijan’s few remaining independent voices are under siege and will not be able to hold out much longer"

Twelve months ago Rebecca Vincent and Rasul Jafarov wrote for Index on Censorship magazine on a crackdown on photojournalists in Azerbaijan. A year later Vincent writes about Jafarov's imprisonment, and the events of 2014.

"The past year has seen the most unprecedented of all human rights crackdowns to date in Azerbaijan, as the authorities work aggressively to silence the country’s few remaining voices. As a result, there are currently more than 90 reported political prisoners in Azerbaijan, including some of the country’s leading human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and bloggers [...]

"Rasul Jafarov’s case bears all the hallmarks of the pressure exerted on human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. He had been on the authorities’ radar for years, with his earlier work for the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety and, since December 2010, in his role as the founder and Chairman of the Human Rights Club. Perhaps most notably, Jafarov co-ordinated the Sing for Democracy campaign, which used the May 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, held in the capital Baku, as a platform to expose on-going human rights violations in the country and promote democratic change. He was the driving force behind the creation of the Art for Democracy campaign [...]

"Jafarov is only one of many prominent human rights defenders to have been targeted in Azerbaijan in recent months. On 26 May, the chairman of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre Anar Mammadli, was sentenced to five and a half years in jail, and his colleague Bashir Suleymanli to three and a half years on charges including illegal entrepreneurship, abuse of office, and tax evasion. Elnur Mammadov of the International Cooperation of Volunteers’ Union was also sentenced to two years on probation [...]

"Parallel to these arrests, the authorities have stepped up other forms of pressure against both local and foreign NGOs, making it nearly impossible for organisations working on issues related to human rights and democracy to continue operating in the country. This has resulted in the closure or suspension of activities of many of the remaining human rights NGOs in the country. Parliament continues to tighten legislation related to the operations and financing of NGOs, cutting off vital sources of funding for independent groups and making it difficult to carry out even routine activities [...]

"Now, with Jafarov and so many of his colleagues behind bars and the organisations they represent effectively paralysed, concrete international support is needed more than ever. Azerbaijan’s few remaining independent voices are under siege and will not be able to hold out much longer.