Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 28
Trend:
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has commented on the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan at a meeting with Ambassador of Armenia Armen Khachatrian Mar. 28.
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. On Jan. 17, 2017, Alexei Stuk, deputy prosecutor general of Belarus, issued a ruling on Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan. Lapshin was brought to Azerbaijan on Feb. 7.
Alexander Lukashenko noted that Armenia had never told him anything about Lapshin and only Azerbaijan put the blogger on the wanted list, according to the Belarus president’s website.
“Interpol knew about it. We properly reported, as law-abiding people. Where did we have to extradite him? We had to extradite him to the country which had put him on the wanted list,” the head of state said.
“No one wanted to take him [Lapshin] back. They started to play this card later. He is a citizen of three countries – none of them wanted him back.”