Azerbaijan detains leading investigative journalist
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This photo taken Sunday, March 2, 2014, shows Azerbaijani Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan detained Khadija Ismayilova, a prominent investigative journalist, on Friday whose reporting has often featured the business dealings of top politicians in the country. (AP Photo/Aziz Karimov) (The Associated Press)
Azerbaijan has ordered the detention of a prominent investigative journalist whose reporting has often featured the business dealings of top politicians in the country.
A court in the capital, Baku, ordered the jailing of Khadija Ismayilova, a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on Friday. She must remain behind bars pending trial on charges of driving a man to suicide — a crime that carries up to seven years in prison.
Many activists and independent journalists in this energy-rich Caspian Sea nation have been jailed since the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, including two rights activists in August.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The treatment of Ismayilova sparked widespread condemnation from rights groups abroad, with Amnesty International condemning it as "just the latest move to silence independent media voices in the country."