Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire
July 27, 2017 Thursday 4:26 PM MSK


Blogger Lapshin writes official request for his extradition from
Azerbaijan to Israel - lawyer

BAKU. July 27

Blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years in prison
in Azerbaijan, has written an official request for his extradition to
Israel, Eduard Chernin, a lawyer for the blogger, said.

"Alexander Lapshin has written a request asking for his extradition to
Israel. That request will be sent to the Justice Ministry," Chernin
told Interfax.

The Baku court for grave crimes on July 20 sentenced blogger Lapshin,
a citizen of Russia and Israel, who was charged with illegally
visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, to three years in jail, an Interfax
correspondent reported from the courtroom. According to the court
decision, Lapshin will serve his sentence in a general-security
prison.

Lapshin refused to appeal. He asked the Israeli embassy in Baku to
seek his extradition to Israel.

According to earlier reports, Lapshin did not admit his guilt at the
trial. He admitted, however, that Nagorno-Karabakh was a territory of
Azerbaijan. He said he had visited Karabakh as a tourist and had no
political purposes.

On December 16, 2016 it emerged that Lapshin had been detained in
Belarus at the request of Azerbaijan. The Belarusian Supreme Court
rejected Lapshin's appeal against his extradition to Azerbaijan on
February 7. He was extradited from Minsk to Baku on the same day.

Lapshin was put on the 'black list' for having visited
Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Azerbaijani authorities. Such
people cannot enter Azerbaijan. However, Lapshin was able to enter
Azerbaijan through Georgia in June 2015, producing a Ukrainian
passport with a different spelling of his name.

The investigative department for grave crimes of the Azerbaijani
Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case on charges of
repeated public calls against the state and illegal crossing of
Azerbaijan's state border. A person convicted of these charges may
receive a sentence of five to eight years in prison.