Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7
By Samir Ali – Trend:
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan has presented documents for extradition of Alexander Lapshin to law enforcement agencies of Belarus, Eldar Sultanov, head of the press service of Prosecutor General’s Office, told Trend Jan. 7.
Lapshin was arrested in Belarus, because he had a criminal conspiracy with a group of people and illegally visited the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, where he spoke openly against Azerbaijan’s statehood, said Sultanov.
He noted that currently, all necessary steps are being taken for Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan.
“Lapshin has been declared internationally wanted due to the fact that his actions include such offenses as public incitement against the state and illegal crossing of the state border and the Department for Investigation of Grave Crimes has filed a criminal case against him under the articles of 281.2 (Public incitement for violent seizure of power, forcible retention of power or violent change of the constitutional order or violation of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, as well as dissemination of such content, committed repeatedly or by a group of people) and 318.2 (Crossing the guarded state border of Azerbaijan without established documents),” explained Sultanov.
He added that a preventive measure in the form of an arrest for two months has been decided by the Minsk court against Lapshin.
Currently, documents needed for Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan are being prepared, said Sultanov.
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 incitement aimed at violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016 in those territories.
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.