Blogger Lapshin with mother to leave for Israel soon

By Rashid Shirinov

Bella Lapshina, mother of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev, arrived in Baku on September 12 night, blogger’s lawyer Eduard Chernin told Trend on September 13.

Chernin said that Lapshin and his mother will leave for Israel soon.

"First they will go to Turkey today or tomorrow and from there to Israel,” the lawyer specified.

Alexander Lapshin illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani lands in April 2011, thus disrespecting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and also crossed Azerbaijan’s border once again by visiting the country in October 2012 using a different passport. The blogger also called for the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh in his blog posts.

Lapshin was extradited from Belarus to Baku on February 7 and sentenced for three years later in July.

However, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an order on September 11 to pardon the blogger and exempt him from serving the remaining part of his sentence.

Azerbaijan has long ago notified the world community that unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of the country occupied by Armenian armed forces are illegal, and any individual paying such visits will be included into Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's "black list".

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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