American PEN Centre urges Azerbaijani authorities to release Khadija Ismayilova

The American PEN Centre has spoken out in defence of the journalist Khadija Ismayilova, arrested in Azerbaijan, believing that the arrest is negatively affecting the country's international image.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 5 Khadija Ismayilova was questioned at the Baku City Prosecutor's Office, after which the court ruled to put her into custody as accused of incitement to a suicide attempt of her former colleague Tural Mustafaev. Her defence treats the accusation as absurd and her arrest as illegal.

As an investigative journalist, Ismayilova "revealed the facts of widespread corruption and human rights violations," says the statement of the American PEN Centre, which was founded in 1922 and unites 3700 American writers.

The statement quotes the words in support of Ismayilova pronounced by Khaled Hosseini, an American writer of Afghan origin and the author of the famous best-selling novel "The Kite Runner", who was translated into the Azerbaijani language by the arrested Khadija.

According to Hosseini, he is honoured that his voice was brought to Azerbaijani readers by Khadija Ismayilova. "Now, it's my turn to speak out in defence of Khadija. I hope that the world will join my call for the immediate and unconditional release of Khadija Ismayilova," said the writer.

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