Khadija Ismayilova

Khadija Rovshan qizi Ismayilova (Azerbaijani: Xədicə İsmayılova, pronounced /xædiːˈdʒæ ismɑˈjɯlovɑ/; born 27 May 1976) is an Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host who is currently working for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She is a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.^[1]

Early life

Khadija Ismayilova graduated from the Baku State University with a degree in philology. For the next ten years, she worked for a number of local and foreign media outlets, including the newspaper Zerkalo, Caspian Business News and the Azerbaijani edition of the Voice of America.^[2]

Investigative reporting

Ismayilova was the head of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 2008 to 2010,^[3] after which she continued working there as a regular staff reporter. Beginning in 2010, a series of her articles dealing with state-level corruption in Azerbaijan caused great controversy as they mentioned the name of Azerbaijan's current President Ilham Aliyev, his wife Mehriban Aliyeva and their children. The government never issued a comment with regard to any of these reports. Two of these articles were named best investigative reports of 2010 and 2011 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.^[2]

Following the publishing of a Washington Post article, which alleged that the eleven-year-old son of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev owned real estate in the United Arab Emirates worth 44 million USD,^[4] Ismayilova co-published an article based on her investigation which shed light on the business activity of other members of the President's family, as well as its close circle of friends, namely Ilham Aliyev's younger daughter Arzu Aliyeva who reportedly owned a bank that had never been privatised since the date of its establishment, as well as co-owning a holding that had been winning unannounced tenders and seizing control of all profitable services of Azerbaijan Airlines, such as airport taxi, duty free, on-board catering, and airplane technical support, without any legal evidence.^[5]

Ismayilova's next controversial publishing revealed the names of offshore companies which had been registered in the names of Aliyev's daughters and owned one of the leading mobile operators and the 3G monopolist of Azerbaijan. It also claimed that the mobile operator had been falsely naming Siemens as its legal owner in order to be able to participate in state tenders to evade the Azerbaijani law not allowing newly registered companies to do so.^[6]

In an investigation report co-authored by Ismayilova and published in May 2012, it was alleged that the AIMROC consortium in charge of extracting gold and silver worth 2.5 billion USD from the Chovdar mine is owned by three Panamanian companies (different from the ones mentioned in the previous report), with the wife and daughters of the president as their senior managers. The president's office refused to comment on the matter.^[7]

On 12 June 2012, the National Assembly of Azerbaijan adopted amendments to three laws, stipulating that from then on, information on the ownership of companies, including names and share of the owners, can only be released either on court orders or as part of a police investigation, on the orders of a financial monitoring agency, or by consent of the company owner only.^[8] According to Azerireport, this was the government's response to Khadija Ismayilova's journalist investigations which brought the corruption of the Azerbaijani government to public attention.^[9] Opposition member Ilgar Mammadov also linked the adoption of the amendments to the corruption scandal caused by the reports and said it would turn Azerbaijan itself into a corruption-friendly offshore zone.^[10] It is noteworthy that almost simultaneously, on 13 June 2012, the National Assembly passed a law granting all ex-Presidents and ex-First Ladies lifelong legal immunity.^[11]

Another investigative report came in October 2012 as part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, for which Khadija Ismayilova cooperated with two Czech journalists and in which claimed that high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan and their family members have companies registered in their names in the Czech Republic and through those companies own luxury real estate in Karlovy Vary. Names of Arzu Aliyeva (who reportedly owns a one-million-dollar villa), Ilham Aliyev's father-in-law Arif Pashayev, Sheikh ul-Islam of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazadeh, his brother Member of Parliament Javanshir Pashazadeh, Member of Parliament Adil Aliyev and the latter's brother Allahverdi Aliyev were mentioned among Azerbaijani company owners in the Czech Republic who in turn owned property there.^[12] According to a Freedom House report, Azerbaijani law prohibits government officials, including the president, from owning businesses, but there are no such restrictions on family members.^[13] In the report, Ismayilova quoted Vasif Movsumov, executive director of the Baku-based Anti-Corruption Foundation, as saying the ownership of the said companies by Parliament Members is a violation of law.^[12]

Other views

In an interview to Gunaz TV, Khadija Ismayilova said she believed that Islamists affiliated with Iran's intelligence were directly responsible for the assassination of publicist Rafiq Tağı.^[14]

Ismayilova condemned the murder of Gurgen Margaryan by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov by calling it an "awful act" and said unlike some, she did not consider him a hero. In August 2012, she mentioned on her Facebook account that the warm welcome Safarov had received in Azerbaijan after being extradited and pardoned stemmed from the fact that "the people of Azerbaijan lost the war, lost the territory to occupants, became refugees, lost their siblings including civilians and they were stopped and banned from restoring justice on the battle field". She also criticised President Aliyev for not exercising his right to pardon a convicted criminal in the proper manner, which made Azerbaijan an easy target of criticism by the international community.^[15]

In August 2013, while commenting on the release of the list of people declared personae non gratae in Azerbaijan for visiting the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, Ismayilova noted that some of the people whose names appear on the list, especially those for whom no reason for the ban has been listed, are in fact journalists and human rights activists who apparently were barred from entering Azerbaijan for criticising the Azerbaijani government in their articles, as it is not evident if they have ever visited Nagorno-Karabakh.^[16]

Sex tape and blackmail

On 7 March 2012, Ismayilova received what appeared to be snapshots of a footage from a camera hidden in her bedroom capturing her engaged in sexual intercourse with her boyfriend. Attached was a letter containing threats of "public humiliation", if Ismayilova did not "behave". Similar snapshots were received by her boyfriend, some relatives and a number of opposition media outlets. According to Agnès Callamard, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, a London-based human rights organization, blackmailers specifically targeted Ismayilova's gender, "as such tactics in a society like Azerbaijan are likely to have particularly damaging repercussions".^[17]

Ismayilova publicly refused to give in to the blackmailers.^[18] On 14 March, the original footage of the intercourse scene was posted on a website posing as the website of the opposition party Musavat. The party officials stated the website did not represent them and condemned the act. Ismayilova blamed the government, primarily the Presidential Administration, for ordering her sex-taped and launching a smear campaign to retaliate for her investigative activity.^[2] Ismayilova submitted a report to the Attorney General's Office on the day after receiving the snapshots, but the office did not start an investigation until after the video was publicised.^[19]

Numerous local and international organizations showed their support for Ismayilova and condemned attempts to blackmail her, among them the Institute for Media Rights (Azerbaijan), Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (Azerbaijan), Amnesty International,^[20] Committee to Protect Journalists,^[21] Association of Women Journalists (Azerbaijan), the local Helsinki Committee for Human Rights^[22] and others. In her letter to President Ilham Aliyev, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović insisted that those responsible for the blackmail be identified and prosecuted.^[23]

In April 2012, British pop singer Sandie Shaw joined an Amnesty International campaign to end human rights abuses in Azerbaijan. Shaw stated on account of Ismayilova's case: "That anyone would stoop so low in an attempt to silence an independent journalist is sickening. The people behind this appalling blackmail and smear campaign must be brought to justice. And the persecution of independent journalists in Azerbaijan must stop."^[20]

On 26 April 2012, the Attorney General's office released the names of all those who lived or visited the apartment where the sex-taping took place. Ismayilova criticised this act, saying that instead of carrying out an investigation the Attorney General's office is echoing the blackmailers in intervening in her personal life by doing this.^[24]

Meanwhile Ismayilova carried out a personal investigation. She claimed that the stamp in accordance with which the March 7 letter was sent from Moscow was fake. In addiiton, according to her, a neighbourhood maintenance worker said that an additional telephone line had been installed in her apartment in July 2011 by technicians from the telephone exchange. The telephone exchange, in turn, said the technicians acted on the orders of the Ministry of National Security which owns an office there that the exchange has no control of. Ismayilova added that in July 2011 she had been abroad and that according to the maintenance worker, an unidentified man had met him at the door claiming to be the owner of the apartment.^[24]

While the official investigation is currently in progress, a similar footage of Ismayilova, recorded at a different time, was published on a different website on 26 July 2013, accompanied by a comment attributed to blogger Emin Milli in which he allegedly said that "the videos featuring Khadija Ismayilova have done serious damage to the general democratic movement". Emin Milli denied making that statement and referred to it as "blatant provocation".^[25] On 2 August 2013, a group of journalists initiated a silent walking protest in support of Ismayilova. 30 of them were detained and later released.^[26]

A number of international human rights organisations signed a collective letter addressed to President Ilham Aliyev and Attorney General Zakir Garalov, calling on them to ensure proper investigation in order to put an end to the ongoing smearing campaign against Khadija Ismayilova and have its perpetrators punished. The letter was signed by ARTICLE 19, Civil Rights Defenders, Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Watch, International Media Support, Media Diversity Institute, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Open Society Foundations, PEN International, People in Need Organisation, Reporters Without Borders.^[27]

2013 arrest and community service

On 26 January 2013, Khadija Ismayilova was among dozens of peaceful protestors who were detained for participating in an unsanctioned protest action in Baku in support of the Ismayilli rioters.^[28] She refused to pay the 500 AZN fine, claiming she had not violated the law. Instead, in June 2013, the Binagadi District Court sentenced her to 220 hours of community service, namely sweeping the streets.^[29] Ismayilova said she was pleased with the verdict, as "clearing this country of rubbish" is something she is used to.^[30] However, soon afterwards many of Ismayilova's supporters expressed their wish to join her in sweeping the streets. Immediately the executive power of the district ceased the service, saying they would replace the sweeping option with indoor service.^[31] On 15 August 2013, the Binagadi Court of Appeal upheld the previous decision, after Ismayilova stated she would only perform community service under public control out of fear of being harassed.^[32]

Awards

On 24 May 2012, in Hamburg, Germany, Ismayilova was presented with the Gerd Bucerius Free Press of Eastern Europe Award by Zeit-Stiftung for her dedication to independent media and freedom of speech.^[33]

On 24 October 2012, Ismayilova was awarded the Courage of Journalism Award by the Washington-based International Women's Media Foundation.^[1]

On 14 October 2013, Ismayilova and her Azerbaijani and Czech colleagues won the Global Shining Light Award, presented to them in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for their report exposing "questionable business dealings" involving the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.^[34]

References