I Believe It Is Important to Know: Alexander Lapshin

Russian and Israeli citizen, blogger Alexander Lapshin wrote on his Facebook page: “It is now official. Israel considers that the penalty imposed on me by Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh did not comply with the law. The Israeli Attorney General's Office and the Jerusalem police department examined the ruling of the Azerbaijani court and decided that the judgment does not conform to Israeli legislation and cannot be entered into a citizen's personal file. I believe it is important to know.”

It is worth recalling that Alexander Lapshin, who resided in Moscow and ran a prominent Travel Blog, was arrested on December 15, 2016, in Minsk. In April 2011, October 2012, and June 2016, Lapshin had visited Artsakh and wrote about it on his blog, criticizing Azerbaijani policy, for which Azerbaijani authorities initiated a criminal case against him and declared him wanted for illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan requested Belarus to extradite Lapshin. Belarus complied with the request of the partner country and extradited Lapshin to Baku on February 7, 2017.