Lapshin`s supporters apply to Benjamin Netanyahu to influence Ilham  Aliyev 

ArmInfo. The supporters of blog writer Alexander Lapshin, who is currently in custody in Baku, ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to influence Ilham  Aliyev.  

In their open letter posted on Lapshin's Facebook page on Feb 13, the  blog writer's supporters urge the Israeli Prime Minister to send a  request to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and to help Lapshin.   

"Your international influence is big and you can and must help the  Israeli citizen, who served in Tzahal and who is in a difficult  situation now. Israel released Gilad Shalit by paying a high price  for him and even criminal Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was kidnapped and  taken to Lebanon. And your brother perished in the Entebbe  operation," the letter says.     

The authors of the letter are convinced that it is time to help the  man, who was performing his duty of a journalist, found himself  involved in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and  eventually found himself in the Azeri prison. They are also convinced  that given the relations between Israel and Azerbaijan and the joint  military and economic programs, Netanyahu has an opportunity to help  the Israeli citizen to be set free.       

The authors of the letter stress the danger of such a precedent,  noting that if this situation is neglected, many Israelis can find  themselves in a similar situation for visiting disputed territories  and even for visiting the territories in Jerusalem or the Golan  Heights, which the international community does not acknowledge  Israeli.         

On Feb 7 the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Lapshin's complaint  about the legitimacy and substantiation of the decision of the Minsk  City Court, which declared the decision of the Belarusian Prosecutor  General's Office about extradition to Baku as legitimate. On Feb 7  evening Lapshin was sent to Baku. To recall, Alexander Lapshin was  detained in mid-December in Minsk upon Azerbaijan's request. Baku  "blacklisted" Lapshin for visiting the Nagorno- Karabakh Republic  without coordinating his decision with the Azeri authorities. On  January 17, the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus satisfied  Azerbaijan's request about Lapshin's extradition.