Azerbaijan moves journalist from jail to house arrest after appeal to president

An Azerbaijani court ordered a detained journalist to be moved from prison to house arrest on Wednesday after a group of human rights advocates urged President Ilham Aliyev and his wife to release her on grounds of poor health.

Shahnaz Beylerqizi, a former employee of Toplum TV, was arrested on February 6 alongside a colleague and charged with smuggling.

Her lawyer, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, said a Baku court had accepted her appeal to be released to house arrest due to her deteriorating health condition.

Beylerqizi's husband, Ismayil Ayubov, has said she suffers from hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease and a brain cyst.

"During the investigation, she will be at home. The criminal case against her has not been closed," Hajiyev told Reuters.

Beylerqizi, who faces up to 12 years if convicted, is one of at least 23 media professionals currently behind bars in Azerbaijan, according to press freedom group Reporters without Borders.

The court decision marks the first time in recent years that a journalist in Azerbaijan has been released to house arrest pending trial.

It came after a monitoring group of human rights organisations sent a personal appeal for her release to Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also Azerbaijan's vice president.

Aliyev, in power since 2003, has repeatedly maintained that his oil-rich country has a free press even as Azerbaijan has come under increasing scrutiny from the West in recent years over the arrests of journalists.

The authorities have launched criminal investigations into smuggling against several employees of independent media outlets and say the detained journalists have real charges to answer.