Baku court denies Ismayilova's end of conditional term

The Binagadi District Court of Baku has refused to satisfy the motion of the investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, to terminate her probationary period of criminal punishment and to remove the conviction. She treats the court judgement as politically motivated and intends to appeal against it.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in August 2016, the Baku Court of Appeal (BCA) reduced Ismayilova's conditional sentence from 3.5 years to 2 years and 3 months.

Khadija Ismayilova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had applied to the Binagadi District Court with a request to terminate her probationary period of criminal punishment, as well as to cancel her criminal record in order to restore her civil rights in full.

"The court has stated that I had not recovered, and, therefore, rejected my motion. No arguments were given," Ms Ismayilova has stated.

According to her story, the probationary period imposes obligations on her to get monthly registered at the Execution and Probation Division of the Binagadi District and prohibits her from travelling abroad.

She intends to appeal against the ruling, treating it as politically motivated and related to the continuation of her investigative journalism.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 12, 2019 at 01:07 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.