Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
The extradition of Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan was carried out in line with international law, Vahid Bayramov, a representative of the Israel-Azerbaijan International Association, told Trend Feb. 8.
“There is an agreement between Azerbaijan and Belarus on extradition of criminals. Lapshin, first of all, violated the law,” noted Bayramov. “Based on this, Azerbaijan sent a request to Interpol for his arrest. Belarusian border guards took into account that he is wanted and detained him.”
Bayramov said Lapshin’s case was considered in three courts in Belarus, and all of them ruled his extradition as legitimate.
“By demanding Lapshin’s extradition in line with international law, Azerbaijan once again demonstrated that it is a rule-of-law state,” he added. “This should serve as a lesson to all those who want to fish in troubled waters, and this is a warning to those who don’t respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.”
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.
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