ArmInfo.Blog writer Alexander Lapshin's case should be addressed only within the legal framework, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov told APA.
"In accordance with the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a criminal case has been initiated against Lapshin, who illegally crossed the state border of Azerbaijan and demonstrated disrespect to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. Lapshin has been put on Interpol's wanted list. All relevant documents have been submitted for the extradition of Lapshin. I believe Russia's law- enforcement authorities would have taken similar steps in respect of a person who committed a similar action in relation to Russia and illegally crossed its state border", Mammadyarov stated.
To note, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister stated at the annual press conference in Moscow, commenting the detention of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin in Minsk due to Azerbaijan's request for his visit to Nagorno Karabakh. "Russia is against criminalization of journalists or simply private persons visiting any region", he said.
"Second, we are against extradition of Russian nationals arrested in any country, to third countries. We had consular contact with Lapshin, we know that he is also an Israeli citizen and Israeli diplomats had contact with him as well. We will take all the steps to solve this situation within the respect to all the rights of Russian citizen, which is also an Israeli citizen," Lavrov accentuated.
To remind, in the middle of December the citizen of the Russian Federation Alexander Lapshin has been arrested in the Republic of Belarus with the purpose of extradition on the demand of Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh and making notes about those visitations in his blog. General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus informed earlier that the issue of extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan is being studied but no decision has been made yet.