Khadija Ismayilova requests to remove charges against her in connection with changes in Azerbaijani Criminal Code

On July 8, Khadija Ismayilova appealed to the Baku Court of Grave Crimes with a request to remove the charges of illegal entrepreneurship. The "Caucasian Knot" was informed by her about the above fact.

The question is about the work of Khadija Ismayilova at the Azerbaijani Office of the "Radio Liberty".

"On June 1, the amendments to the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan came into force. The changes were also made to Article 192 'Illegal entrepreneurship'. The new version of the law leaves no holes to interpret as 'illegal entrepreneurship' the activities of a journalist working for foreign media without accreditation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In fact, earlier, such interpretation was also illegal; however, some kind of abstractness and vagueness of Article 192 opened possibilities for arbitrariness. Now, the law provides more concrete definitions," Khadija Ismayilova said.

Her advocate Yalchin Imanov has also noted that the amendments to the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan provide the grounds for removal from Khadija Ismayilova the charges of "illegal entrepreneurship". The advocate believes that the court is to consider the appeal and commute the conditional sentence of the journalist.

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