11 September, 2017
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on Monday on pardoning Russian-Israeli travel blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years behind bars, Tass agency reported.
The relevant document has been published on the official website of President of Azerbaijan.
He noted that after the signing of the pardon order by the Azerbaijani president, the country's Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Baku are dealing with the issue of Lapshin's extradition, and probably this process will soon be completed.
On February 7, 2017, Alexander Lapshin was extradited to Azerbaijan where a Baku Court sentenced him to 3 years imprisonment. Criminal cases were brought in two counts with respect to Lapshin: 281.2 (appeals against the state) and 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Lapshin entered Nagorno-Karabakh through Armenia, without Baku's permission, in 2011 and 2012. "An appropriate decision on this issue had been delayed simply because a request from the State of Israel, of which Lapshin is a citizen, had been delayed". Spelling of his name in his Ukrainian passport differs from the other documents; therefore, he could skirt the ban.
Azeri authorities also claim that the blogger pushed for independence of Nagorno-Karabakh in his posts.
