Azerbaijan Extends Prominent Journalist's Pretrial Detention
An Azerbaijan court on Tuesday extended by nearly two months the pretrial detention of a prominent investigative journalist and anti-graft campaigner, her lawyer said.
The journalist Khadija Ismayilova's "pre-trial detention was extended by one month and 19 days," her lawyer Ialchin Imanov told AFP.
"My client believes that her prosecution is linked to her journalistic work," he added.
Ismayilova was arrested on December 5 and ordered to spend two months in pre-trial detention after prosecutors accused her of inciting a former colleague to commit suicide.
A former journalist at Radio Liberty's Azerbaijani service where Ismayilova used to be bureau chief, Tural Mustafayev, says he attempted suicide in September because Ismayilova sacked him several years earlier.
If convicted, Ismayilova -- who dismissed the charges as "absurd" -- could face a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Her arrest sparked widespread international condemnation.
Dunja Mijatovic, from the media watchdog of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Ismayilova's arrest was "part of the on-going campaign aimed at silencing her free and critical voice."
Ismayilova, who has won several awards for her work exposing corrupt officials in the energy-rich Caspian Sea country, has repeatedly said she is being harassed due to her anti-graft campaigning.
Rights groups say the government has stepped up pressure on opponents since President Ilham Aliyev's election to a third term in 2013.
Aliyev, 53, came to power in 2003 following an election seen as flawed by international observers.
He took over after the death of his father Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer and communist-era leader who had ruled newly independent Azerbaijan with an iron fist since 1993.
Source: Agence France Presse
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