Since Azerbaijan declared independence in 1991, a tightly-knit group centered around the late President Heydar Aliyev—and now his son, Ilham Aliyev—have ruled the country. Although the country’s constitution establishes separate branches of government, Aliyev and his New Azerbaijan Party have effective control over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Aliyev maintains power through political domination of and tight restrictions on civil society and independent media. Violations of international human rights are systematic and well-documented. Baku is quick to retaliate against critics—local Azerbaijani activists have catalogued more than 400 political prisoners in the country as of March 2026, including journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, civil society activists, and religious minorities.
Additionally, corruption is endemic in Azerbaijan. In 2017, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the Guardian, and other international media partners uncovered a scheme dubbed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, wherein $2.9 billion was funneled by Azerbaijani elites into European shell companies. In its 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International ranked Azerbaijan 131 out of 180 countries.
Khadija Ismayilova is a journalist who invoked the government’s ire by exposing these truths.
Khadija began her career in journalism in 1997. She served as the head of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty between 2008 and 2010 and later as a contributor and radio host.
On December 5, 2014, authorities arrested Ismayilova and accused her of inciting the attempted suicide of a friend and former colleague. The day before the arrest, the Head of the Presidential Administration issued a 60-page document that accused Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty employees of treason and specifically singled out Ismayilova as the “best example.”
Azerbaijani authorities brought additional charges of illegal business activity, tax evasion, abuse of office, and embezzlement on February 13, 2015. In April 2015, Ismayilova’s accuser sought to drop the charges of inciting suicide, claiming he was intimidated by the authorities into making that accusation. However, the court refused to grant Ismayilova’s lawyer’s request to dismiss the charges. On September 1, 2015, Ismayilova was convicted and sentenced to seven and one-half years in prison.
Freedom Now brought international attention to Ismayilova’s case by joining in multiple letters with NGO partners through Sport for Rights and other coalitions, joining in a letter to then-Secretary of State John Kerry, issuing a comprehensive report on the legal strategy the government used against Ismayilova and her fellow activists, a third-party intervention with the European Court of Human Rights, preparing a report to the UN Human Rights Council prior to Azerbaijan’s universal periodic review, and publishing an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. In July 2015, we organized a letter from 16 U.S. Senators to President Aliyev requesting Khadija’s release.
On May 26, 2016, the Supreme Court ordered Ismayilova to be released and commuted her sentence to three and one-half years’ probation. Nearly 10 years later, the European Court of Human Rights found that her conviction was baseless, unfair, and a violation of her right to freedom of expression.
In May 2015, in the midst of her detention, Khadija was awarded the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in recognition of her tireless work to combat corruption and defend freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. She has since been awarded numerous prizes for her courageous reporting including, the Anna Politkovskaya Award, the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the Right Livelihood Award, and the Allard Prize for International Integrity.
Since her release from prison, Khadija has remained in Azerbaijan where she continues to document human rights abuses and government corruption. She was one of several reporters who worked on uncovering the Azerbaijani Laundromat scandal mentioned above. However, the government has not completely ignored her efforts. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Toplum TV, an independent media outlet that the government raided in March 2024 when it arrested six of her staff members. Freedom Now is active in calling for their release as well as the hundreds of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.