Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on Monday, September 12 saigned a decree to pardon Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was handed a three-year prison term for visiting Nagorno Karabakh.

The decision enters into force on Monday.

Lapshin was sentenced by the Baku court on grave crimes on July 20, 2017 over his visit to Karabakh.

The blogger was detained in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in December 2016 at Baku’s request. He was flown to Baku on February 7 and handed over to the Azerbaijani State Security Service. Azerbaijan’s prosecutors opened criminal cases against him envisaging jail terms of between five and eight years.