| Alexander Lapshin | |
| Birth Date: | 4 February 1976 |
| Birth Place: | Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Children: | 1 |
| Occupation: | Blogger, journalist |
| Education: | University of Haifa, University of Maryland |
Alexander Valerievich Lapshin (Hebrew: אלכסנדר לפשין, Russian: Александр Валерьевич Лапшин, born 4 February 1976) is a Soviet-born travel blogger and journalist.[1] Lapshin holds Ukrainian and Israeli citizenship.[2] In 2016 Lapshin was arrested in Minsk at the request of the Azerbaijani authorities and extradited to Baku due to a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. On May 20, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on the blogger's complaint against the Republic of Azerbaijan, finding the country's authorities responsible for the illegal arrest, torture and attempted murder against Lapshin.[3]
Alexander Lapshin was born in 1976 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), to a Russian father and Jewish-Ukrainian mother. At the age of 13, he emigrated to Israel with his family. After graduating from the University of Haifa, he served three years with the Israel Defense Forces, both in the Gaza Strip and on the Lebanese-Israeli border. For about a year, he studied in the United States. Between 2003 and 2008, he lived in Moscow and was engaged in commercial real estate and the Forex market.[4] After the financial crisis of 2008, he returned to Israel. Until 2016, he lived on the Rosh HaNikra kibbutz in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, working as a remote editor of Russian travel Internet resources.[5]
On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was arrested in Minsk at the request of Azerbaijan for allegedly illegal crossing of the Azerbaijan border and incitements against the state.[6] Lapshin visited Nagorno Karabakh Republic (which is internationally recognised as a part of Azerbaijan) twice, in 2011 and 2012, resulting in the "blacklisting" by Azerbaijan.
Belarus extradited Lapshin to Azerbaijan on 7 February 7, 2017.[7] Diplomats of Russia, Israel and Armenia attempted to prevent his extradition to Azerbaijan. The representative of the US State Department John Kirby spoke about the Lapshin case.[8] The protest in connection with the extradition of Lapshin was also announced by the Council of Europe, the OSCE, Amnesty International, HRW and CPJ.[9] [10] [11]
Numerous Israeli, Russian,[12] [13] Turkish,[14] Czech[15] and EU[16] politicians condemned Lapshin’s extradition and demanded his release.
A court in Baku sentenced Lapshin to three years in prison.[17] [18] Three months after that, on 11 September 2017, Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to pardon Alexander Lapshin, after which he was able to fly from Baku to Tel Aviv.[19] [20] [21] [22]
On the night of 11 September 2017, Lapshin was attacked in a solitary confinement cell of a Baku Pre-trial detention. In the morning of the same day, Ali Hasanov, a personal adviser to the president, made a statement that Lapshin had attempted suicide, but that the prison guards managed to save his life. It was also stated that, in connection with this incident, it was decided to pardon him by presidential decree. Lapshin spent 3 days in the intensive care unit of a Baku hospital and then was deported to Israel. After arriving in Israel, Lapshin made a statement to the press that he had not committed suicide and that he had been attacked in Baku with the aim of murder.[23] Medical examinations conducted in Israel confirmed the blogger’s version of the attempted murder, which contradicted the official position of the Baku authorities. Independent experts in Russia and the Netherlands also confirmed the assassination version, which became the basis for filing a complaint against Azerbaijan to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.[24] [25]
At the beginning of 2018, Alexander Lapshin filed a lawsuit against Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR), in which he accused Azerbaijan of attempted murder, torture, illegal imprisonment.[26] [27] On May 20, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on the blogger's complaint against the Republic of Azerbaijan, finding the country's authorities responsible for the illegal arrest, torture and attempted murder against Lapshin.[28] [29]
On 19 July 2022 the UN Human Rights Committee adopted a view recognizing the Belarusian authorities as guilty of the illegal arrest and subsequent extradition to Azerbaijan of Alexander Lapshin. The resolution emphasizes that visiting Nagorno-Karabakh as a journalist cannot be considered a criminal offense, and also states that the extradition to Azerbaijan potentially threatened the journalist's life and should not have taken.