Khadija Ismayilova

Khadija Ismayilova's Reporting on Azerbaijan's Ruling Family Working with the cross-border OCCRP network, Ismayilova followed the money around Azerbaijan's ruling family, and the Panama Papers later confirmed parts of what she had reported about the president. The state's answer was a prosecution: in September 2015 a Baku court sentenced her to seven and a half years. In May 2016 the Supreme Court freed her, suspending the sentence but upholding convictions for illegal business and tax evasion. Start here to see how patient, document-led reporting can reach the very top of a closed political system, and how that same system turns to the courts in reply.