A group of politicians and journalists have petitioned to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a request for his assistance in the release of blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshin, who has been arrested in Azerbaijan.

The Forum of Armenian Associations of Europe (FAAE) informed Armenian News-NEWS.am that the respective letter notes that Lapshin’s arrest is purely political.

In the letter, these politicians and journalists asked Israel to undertake all possible actions to have this blogger and journalist released.

They added that his arrest runs contrary to the charter of freedoms and rights, and that Azerbaijan, as a UN member, is also obligated to follow the law.

The said letter was signed by František Mikloško, former Speaker and MP of the Slovak National Council; Ján Čarnogurský, former Prime Minister of Slovakia; Vladimír Palko,  former Interior Minister of Slovakia; Radovan Pavlik, SITA news agency reporter; and Ashot Grigorian, President of FAAE.

After his visits to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2011 and 2012, Israeli Russian blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan.

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan--but with a Ukrainian passport--and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger's appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutor’s Office.

And on the evening of the same day, Belarus extradited Alexander Lapshin to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.