BAKU, AZERBAIDJAN – In an information campaign attempting to silence critics of its democratic regime, Azerbaijan has decided to target none other than Alexander Lapshin, an independant journalist and blogger.
President Ilham Aliyev, a great environmentalist, wished to speak on “the partiality of this pseudo-journalist” on Sunday.
“He never says anything positive for our great country”, complains the head of state who had the journalist kidnapped and tortured.
“Yes, we jailed him for going to Karabakh,” he says. “What’s the matter? It’s not like people are free to move around however they like, right?”
Among other things, the president accuses Lapshin of being a spy because he has dual Russian and Israeli nationality. “This guy is Jason Bourne! He’s fishy!”
“Yes, we had him forcibly removed and extradited without asking anyone for anything,” admits the president. “But we made him fly on MY my private jet! What a lack of gratitude!”, he laments.
“And honestly… what is this profession, ‘journalist’?”, Aliyev jokes. A “fake job”, which “simply does not exist in Azerbaijan”.
In his defense, the president produced a letter signed by Lapshin thanking him for his pardon, a letter he allegedly wrote on the day he was in a coma following an attempted murder by soldiers in his cell.
Alexander Lapshin is an independant journalist who has traveled to more than 100 countries. He was the subject of an arrest warrant in 2016 by Azerbaijan for having traveled to the Armenian enclave in Karabakh and for having reported there. No country wanted to carry out the warrant, which was ridiculous, except Belarus (another dictatorship) which had him imprisoned and delivered to Baku illegally.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and imprisoned before being released after three months following diplomatic pressure from Russia and Israel, two countries of which Lapshin is a national, as well as protests from other countries, like the United States and Armenia.
Before he was returned to the Israeli authorities, Lapshin suffered an attempted murder in his cell, leaving him in a coma for several hours. Baku claims he attempted to hang himself, but Azeri and Israeli doctors who examined him said everything showed he had been asphyxiated.
A case is still open before the European Court of Human Rights for the treatment Lapshin suffered in Azerbaijan.
In February 2019, Azerbaijan again condemned Lapshin for articles “discrediting and humiliating the honor and dignity of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.
A new kidnapping attempt took place in Latvia on December 15, 2019, organized by the Azeri special services and foiled by the local police.
For more information : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lapshin