Lapshin Responds to Execution of Armenian Prisoners in Azerbaijan

Russian and Israeli citizen, blogger Alexander Lapshin wrote on his Facebook page: "These days, when the whole world is shocked by the brutal execution of civilians by Azerbaijani armed forces near Hadrut, I can only say this: I have known for a long time who we are dealing with. This is a case where explanations do not work; they say that it was not Azerbaijani soldiers shooting, but Syrian jihadists who came to help save Ilham Aliyev's power. No, this is a pure Azerbaijani act, as my Azerbaijani opposition acquaintances tell me. I also asked what the inscription next to the word 'Azerbaijan' written on a concrete block on the right symbolizes, and they replied that, most likely, the murderers wrote the name of their regiment or the 088 division.

Let me remind you, initially Azerbaijani media and all their bloggers happily reported that they had caught Armenians—cutting out the actual moment of the execution from the video of the process. But then they themselves began to send each other the full version of the recording along with the execution, rejoicing at how powerful they are, having shot two civilians, including an elderly man. The recording surfaced outside of Azerbaijan. After that, Azerbaijani media got scared and removed the stories of capturing prisoners, stating that it was fake and that they were seeing it for the first time. But Google remembers everything.

Everything happened just as it did in the story of my attack in a Baku prison on the night of September 10-11, 2017. First, we were attacked by four, beaten and choked. Then fearing that I would die (perhaps the goal was not to kill but to injure and intimidate me), they tried to make it look like I was committing suicide by hanging. But Lapshin apparently did not want to die, and time was running out; presumably the prison guards rushed to me, and confusion ensued. They decided that it was necessary to save rather than kill. Just a few hours later, all their media announced that I had hanged myself, but the heroic prison guards had saved me. Subsequently, a seriously frightened President Aliyev pardoned me without my asking for clemency. On the fourth day, I was sent directly from one of Baku's hospitals' intensive care units to Israel.

The murderers overlooked one thing. Regardless of how Israel sells weapons to Aliyev's regime, there is a standard procedure for accepting persons coming from foreign detention places. It is called a medical examination. They transferred me to the hospital right from the Tel Aviv plane and subjected me to a complete examination, documenting numerous fractures, injuries, hematomas, and a report was issued on this. Similar examinations were also carried out by experts in Russia and the Netherlands, and they also published their opinions. Based on the conclusion, my lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights.

What do you think was Baku's response? That the experts from Israel, the Netherlands, and Russia are incompetent and moreover that they work in favor of the Armenian side. And that no one attacked or choked me, and that it is fake. Naturally, the European Court did not accept these explanations, and the case is now being considered by the court.

Furthermore, when presenting the belt with which I allegedly hanged myself, they forgot that they had previously provided the inventory of my belongings in the prison cell where there was no belt. So where did it come from? From which category is it: 'The Shtirlitz has never been this close to failure.' Agree that the attitude of official Baku in the case of the execution of these two residents of Hadrut and in my case is completely the same. This is their way of working."