Israeli blogger denies being pardoned for attempted suicide
After being imprisoned in Azerbaijan for months, Israeli blogger Lapshin is pardoned by Azerbaijani pres. supposedly after he tried to end his own life; Lapshin denies this, claiming he was abused and attacked while in jail.
Responding to reports that he was received a presidential pardon from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after he tried to take his own life, Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin vehemently denied any such attempt on his part, asserting that he was attacked by inmates while incarcerated. Lapshin additionally hinted that his pardon was likely for good PR, following the injuries Lapshin had suffered.
"I have not committed any suicide attempt," he said. "I received threats from the beginning of my stay in Baku prison from other prisoners. Although they kept me in isolation, crossing paths with other inmates was inevitable.
"I was interrogated on the subject of cooperating with the FSB (the Russian Security Service—ed) and the intelligence services of Armenia on hostile activity against Azerbaijan. It was absolute nonsense, but that was what interested them the most.
"A few days ago, they put someone in my cell. I woke up two days later in the emergency room of a hospital in Baku with a fractured neck, choke marks and broken teeth.
"Immediately after the incident, I was pardoned."
Lapshin, a 40-year-old Haifa resident with Israeli, Russian and Ukrainian citizenships, had been arrested on several charges—namely, trespassing the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan; calling the Azerbaijani government "a dictatorship"; and openly supporting the region's independence. Soon after, Azerbaijan issued a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of espionage, with news sources speculating that he was working for the Armenian Special Police.
Lapshin was arrested on Dec. 15th, 2016 upon reaching Belarus, before being extradited to Azerbaijan. Israeli officials tried in vain to prevent this, worried that if Lapshin were to be transferred to Azerbaijan, he would face a heavy prison sentence.
However, during his sentencing, the Azerbaijani judge only found Lapshin guilty of the trespassing charges leveled against him, and did not accept the espionage charges or hand down additional jail time for his criticizing the president. He was therefore sentenced to three years in prison, to be counted from the moment he was arrested in Belarus, on Dec. 15th, 2016.
He was pardoned on Monday.
