Protesters In Georgia, Moldova Demand Release Of Ismayilova

Protestersi n Tbilisi demand Khadija Ismayilova be freed on December 10.

About 50 protesters have demonstrated outside Azerbaijan's embassy in Tbilisi, demanding that Azerbaijan's government release Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist and contributor to RFE/RL.

The demonstrators on December 10 tried to hand a petition to an embassy official, who came out of the building, but the man refused to take it.

Meanwhile, about 20 protesters picketed Azerbaijan's Consulate in Georgia's southwestern city of Batumi on December 10 to demand the journalist's immediate release.

About a dozen of Ismayilova's supporters also rallied in front of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Moldova's capital, Chisinau, on December 10.

Azerbaijani authorities on December 5 ordered Ismayilova to be held in pretrial detention for two months.

She was summoned to appear in court over a case in which a man accused her of encouraging him to commit suicide.

OSCE, European Union, and U.S. officials have expressed concern about Ismayilova's detention, calling her incarceration politically motivated and calling for her release.