Israel yet to request blogger Lapshin's extradition from Azerbaijan - lawyer
BAKU. Aug 14 (Interfax) - The situation with the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who had been convicted in Azerbaijan for visiting Karabakh, to Israel could be clarified in the next seven or ten days, Lapshin's lawyer Eduard Chernin told Interfax on Monday.
"I believe we'll see what steps are to be taken in this direction in the next seven-ten days," Chernin said.
"The sentence enters into force today. The procedure should be complied with. The Israeli Justice Ministry's request should be forwarded to the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry, following which the Azerbaijani side considers it," the lawyer said.
"As a matter of principle, Israel expressed a wish for Lapshin's extradition, but there's a big difference between a wish and specific actions. The Israeli side said they have a certain procedure," he said.
According to earlier reports, Lapshin wrote a request asking for his extradition to Israel.
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 courthouse. According to the court judgment, 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.
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.