Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 26
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
The Minsk City Court upheld the decision of the Belarusian General Prosecutor’s Office on extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan and did not grant his complaint, the court told Trend Jan. 26.
Lapshin appealed the decision of the Belarusian General Prosecutor’s Office Jan. 24.
“The appeal was considered during a closed court session,” an official of the Minsk City Court said.
Belarusian Deputy Prosecutor General Alexei Stuk decided to extradite the blogger to the Azerbaijan Republic on January 17.
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.