Committee to Protect Journalists Calls for ‘Unconditional Release’ of Lapshin

Russian-Israeli blogger, Alexander Lapshin (Photo: Alexander Lapshin Facebook Page)

NEW YORK (Committee to Protect Journalists)””Belarussian authorities should unconditionally release Aleksandr Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli blogger detained in the capital Minsk on an extradition request from Azerbaijan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on January 13.

Police in Minsk on December 15, 2016, detained Lapshin, who lives in Moscow and writes a popular Russian-language travel blog, He is wanted in Azerbaijan for visiting the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2011, October 2012, and June 2016, and for criticizing Azerbaijani policies on his blog, according to news reports. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim Nagorno-Karabakh as their territory. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is now under Armenian control.

Lapshin’s detention soon after he entered Belarus stems from his inclusion in 2011 on the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s list of people wanted on charges of making “anti-state calls to the public”