Israeli-based blogger Alexander Lapshin will provide the proceeds from the sale of his jacket for the treatment of wounded Armenian soldiers.
“My famous red jacket in which I flew on the personal plane of [Azerbaijani] President [Ilham] Aliyev from Minsk to Baku on February 7, 2017 was sold for 2,700 US dollars,” Lapshin said in a Facebook post.
He noted that the jacket had since been kept in a vacuum bag, had never been washed and “keeps the smells of the chair in which the head of Azerbaijan, members of his family and other bigwigs in the government of this regime have sat more than once.”
The money will go to help the wounded Armenian soldiers.
“Tomorrow we will divide this amount between 15-20 guys for their treatment in Yerevan hospitals. This is the least I can do,” Lapshin said.
The blogger promised to share a video on what he’s currently doing in Yerevan.
On 15 December 15, 2016, Lapshin was arrested in Minsk at the request of Azerbaijan, which had put him on a “black list” for visiting the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, i.e. he was prohibited from visiting Azerbaijan.
Nevertheless, Alexander Lapshin was able to visit Baku in June 2016 with his Ukrainian passport, which used the spelling “Olexander” instead of “Alexander” (due to the Ukrainian transliteration).
The General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus decided to satisfy the request by ABaku and extradited Lapshin to Azerbaijan on 7 February 7, 2017 on President Ilham Aliyev’s personal jet.
A court in Baku sentenced Lapshin to three years in prison. On 11 September 2017, Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to pardon Alexander Lapshin, after which he was able to fly from Baku to Tel Aviv.
