BAKU -- Azerbaijan has shortened a suspended sentence that was handed down to RFE/RL journalist Khadija Ismayilova.
In Baku on August 8, the Court for Serious Crimes in Baku ordered Ismayilova's 3 1/2-year suspended term to be shortened to 2 years and 3 months.
No reason was given for the decision.
Ismayilova was detained in December 2014 and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison in September 2015 after the Court for Serious Crimes in Baku found her guilty of tax evasion, misappropriation of property, abuse of position, and illegal entrepreneurship.
She was released from custody in May after the country's Supreme Court reversed her convictions on charges of misappropriation of property and abuse of position, but upheld her convictions for illegal entrepreneurship and tax evasion. The court then reduced her sentence to a suspended term of 3 1/2 years.
The case against Ismayilova had been widely seen as retaliation for her award-winning investigative reporting linking the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to corruption.
