United States Agency for Global Media

U.S. Senators deplore Azerbaijan’s “politically motivated arrests,” call For Ismayilova’s release

July 9, 2015

A group of 16 U.S. Senators, led by Minority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), addressed Azeri President Ilham Aliyev with growing concern about “a systematic crackdown on human rights and independent civil society” in Azerbaijan, calling on him in a letter issued yesterday [full text here] to “provid[e] a more tolerant environment” for media, reopen RFE/RL’s Baku bureau, and release Khadija Ismayilova, the country’s most prominent investigative reporter, who was imprisoned on fabricated charges last December. Read More