Today employee of the Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani Service, investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova gave a statement in the Department on Investigating Serious Crimes of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Informing the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Ismayilova said that her personal computer, email, Skype and Facebook accounts were searched. Her correspondence with the former investigator of the Ministry of National Security (MNS), Ramin Nagiyev was also checked.
“Today I found out that on February 19th there was a court ruling on the search of my apartment and social network accounts, but the search was not conducted. It is unclear to me what was the basis for such a decision, as I did provide all the information required by the investigation and access to computer files”, said Ismayilova.
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova is being questioned in connection with a document published on her Facebook page on February 17, which is linked to the MNS. A criminal case has been recently opened under Article 284.2 of Azerbaijani Criminal Code (disclosure of state secret) in connection with the document. It is about placement of spies in political parties by the MNS. According to the journalist, the document was leaked to her in 2011 by a former MNS investigator Ramin Nagiyev, who currently lives in France.