Blogger Lapshin May Serve Prison Term in Home Country

The Russian Ministry of Justice says it is ready to begin discussions on transferring recently imprisoned blogger Alexander Lapshin to the Russian Federation should he request it in order to serve his prison sentence.

The Russian Ministry of Justice says it is ready to begin discussions on transferring recently imprisoned blogger Alexander Lapshin to the Russian Federation should he request it in order to serve his prison sentence.

A citizen of Russia, Israel and Ukraine, Lapshin was sentenced by a Baku court to three years imprisonment last week on Thursday for illegally crossing Azerbaijan’s state border into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh.

His lawyer, Eduard Chernin, told

RIA Novosti

that international agreements dating back to 1988 between Azerbaijan and other states could provide for his extradition to a home country in order to serve his term.

However, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov refused to give journalists a comment on the issue on July 20.

“No, this is not a topic for the Kremlin to discuss,” Peskov said, responding to a request to express his opinion on the situation with the blogger’s extradition from Azerbaijan,

Regnum

reports.

In turn, the International Organization Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ)

condemned

the verdict to imprison Lapshin.

Lapshin was detained in Minsk in December of 2016 on the request of Azerbaijan and later extradited on February 7, 2017. He was accused of illegally crossing the state border of Azerbaijan, and of making public appeals against the state.

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