Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a pardon Monday for Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was sentenced to three years in prison for having entered the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The pardon went into effect immediately.
The government of Azerbaijan responded angrily to revelations that it ran a secret $2.9 billion fund which was used to pay prominent Europeans, run lobbying operations, and launder money via a group of opaque British companies.
Azerbaijan was accused of running a 2.5 billion euro ($3 billion) scheme to pay off European politicians, launder money and buy luxury goods, allegations that prompted the government to block an investigative-reporting project’s website.
An Israeli drone manufacturer attempted to bomb the Armenian military on behalf of Azerbaijan during a demonstration of one of its “suicide” unmanned aerial vehicles last month, according to a complaint filed with the Defense Ministry.
The trial of Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin continued Tuesday in the capital of Azerbaijan, where the Baku Court of Grave Crimes heard testimony from residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory disputed between two former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Armenia and which the Russian-Israeli blogger is charged with visiting and claiming that it belongs to Armenia.
A Malta magistrate is investigating explosive claims of money laundering and corruption that have put New Zealand in the middle of a global cash trail from the family of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev.
An unopened Trump hotel in Azerbaijan has been linked to corrupt officials who support the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reports Adam Davidson in a New Yorker piece.
BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s president on Tuesday appointed his wife as the first vice president of the ex-Soviet nation the person next in line in the nation’s power hierarchy.
Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin was extradited from Belarus to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry source confirmed, two months after being arrested for criticizing Azerbaijan and its president.
The Supreme Court of Belarus ruled today to leave the decision of the Prosecutor General’s office on blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan in force, RIA Novosti reports.