(C) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty [1]:
Opinion : In Azerbaijan, a travel ban and a sham election
Date: 2020-02-24 00:00:00 [2]
Ms. Ismayilova was released in 2016 after a year and a half in jail, where she had been unjustly incarcerated to silence her investigations of high-level corruption and cronyism. As we have noted before, she exposed hidden financial links in the telecommunications, construction, gold mining, hotel, media and airline services held by Mr. Aliyev and his family. More detail about the way Mr. Aliyev’s elite has plundered the country was revealed in September 2017 in “The Azerbaijani Laundromat,” an exposé by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which reported on a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled $2.9 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the United Kingdom. The report showed that at least three European politicians, a journalist who wrote stories friendly to the regime and businessmen who praised the government were among the recipients of the money. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani government threw more than 90 human rights activists, opposition politicians and journalists, including Ms. Ismayilova, into prison.
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[2] Url:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/in-azerbaijan-a-travel-ban-and-a-sham-election/2020/02/24/7175bc8c-4c38-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html
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