Lapshin becomes subject of bargaining, Israel will stand for its citizen until he is free – says former Knesset member
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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Former Israeli parliamentarian, founder of Israel-Armenia parliamentary friendship group AlexanderTsinkerthinks that blogger Alexander Lapshin, extradited yesterday by Belarus to Azerbaijan, is the victim of inter-state confrontations in the post-Soviet area. “Both the Israeli and Russian authorities have voiced against the blogger’s extradition. Deputy MinisterofForeignAffairsof Israel Tzipi Hotovely and member of the Knesset Ksenia Svetlova have been involved in the developments”, AlexanderTsinker told “Armenpress” adding that official Baku did not want to step back and just suspend its demand, but it is ready to pardon Lapshin if he asks personally Aliyev about that.
He stated that Israel having proposed various options to solve the issue will not calm down as long as its citizen is not set free.
“As far as I know there is an arrangement not to keep Lapshin in Azerbaijani jails. It was very difficult to imagine that something like that could happen in the contemporary civilized world. Probably some bargains are underway now, where Azerbaijan seeks to win some dividends at the expense of Lapshin. The conflict will be solved, but the gap that has emerged between the post-Soviet states and relations with Israel should be filled in a new way in the best case. This gap can even go deeper”, he concluded.
Alexander Lapshin, the Russian-Israeli blogger who was extradited from Belarus to Azerbaijan on February 7, has been placed in the isolation cell in Azerbaijan’s state security service.
Lapshin was taken to Baku from Minsk on a special flight, escorted by state security agents. A group of reporters were waiting for Lapshin in Baku’s airport, but Lapshin didn’t give any comment to them.
The Belarus Supreme Court denied Lapshin’s appeal on the extradition verdict issued by the General Prosecutor of Belarus.
Lapshin faces up to 5 years imprisonment in Azerbaijan, under charges of “public calls against the state”, and “unauthorized crossing of borders”.