Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
Moscow has made a statement on the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who holds Russian citizenship, to Azerbaijan.
“According to the available information, the Supreme Court of Belarus, having considered the case in a closed session on Feb. 7, dismissed the complaint of the citizen of Russia and Israel Alexander Lapshin against the decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus on his extradition to Azerbaijan. The Russian side expresses disappointment with this decision,” reads a message on the website of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We intend to continue taking all the necessary measures to protect the rights and legitimate interests of the Russian citizen to quickly return him to his family,” the message said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the decision of the General Prosecutor's Office to extradite Lapshin to Baku. On the same day, the blogger was brought to Baku.
Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of several countries and has had a criminal conspiracy with Armenians living in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He also illegally visited these territories.
Lapshin is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012. In order to promote the illegal regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia, Lapshin presented Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh as an “independent state” on his social media account, and supporting the “independence” of the unrecognized regime he made public incitements aimed at violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.