Khadija Ismayilova states attempts of authorities to hide corruption by repressions

Today, at the trial of Khadija Ismayilova in Baku, the floor was given to the defendant. In her last plea, the journalist denied all the allegations and said that the Azerbaijani authorities, including the president's family, are mired in corruption and will not be able to retain control over the country for long through repressions.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter of the "Radio Liberty" in Azerbaijan, appeared in court on charges of economic crimes and bringing her colleague Tural Mustafaev to a suicide attempt. On August 21, prosecutor Ramazan Khadyev asked the court to sentence Khadija Ismayilova to 9 years of imprisonment.

"I don't know about your conclusions after this express-trial, but my conclusion is that the repressive machine is on the verge of collapse. Of course, we can view it as an effect of price collapse on the oil market; however, there are other reasons, and one of them is in us," Ismayilova said in her last plea.

She treated the methods resorted to by the authorities in dealing with their critics as shameful and based on lies. This time, the employees of the law enforcement system "could not even more or less tolerably fabricate a criminal case," said Ismayilova. According to her story, the witnesses were exposed to blatant pressure; they were forced to sign false testimonies; and sometimes they falsified even signatures themselves.

During her speech Khadija Ismayilova showed her strong spirits, Ayten Mamedova, an employee of the newspaper "Azadlyg", who was present at the session, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Judge Ramella Allakhverdieva made several warnings to Khadija, threatening to deprive her of the floor. Finally, when Khadija was near completion of her speech and called her colleagues and citizens to fight against election frauds, the judge interrupted her and said that the court was retiring for the deliberation. Khadija impassively continued her speech until the courtroom was liberated from the audience by court marshals," said Mamedova.

Advocate Fariz Namazly has treated the deprivation of Ismayilova of a chance to finish her speech as illegal.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.