ArmInfo.Philippe Boillat, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe, during the meeting with Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan emphasized the importance of adopting new law on Human Rights Defense and expressed readiness to further deepen cooperation.
The press service of Ombudsman's Office informs that in this light an agreement was reached to intensify implementation of joint programs and initiate new programs for arrested people, in defense of rights of servicemen and other issues. The importance of close cooperation with representatives of civil society and mass media was stressed.
Tatoyan discussed with Boillat the issue of extradition of Russian Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin, who had been arrested in Minsk on Baku's demand for visiting Nagorno Karabakh. Tatoyan emphasized that Lapshin's extradition is a political issue, it threatens freedom of speech and is an attempt to create a dangerous precedent. "They harshly violate European system of human rights. Journalists' visits to Nagorno Karabakh are preventive and cannot become reason for persecutions. This incident stresses even more the necessity to intensify visits to Artsakh and the importance of participation of Artsakh Ombudsman and representatives of civil society in international processes", Tatoyan noted.
Tatoyan also handed over to Boillat a report on the results of investigation of Azerbaijan's sabotage attack on Armenian-Azerbaijani border near Chinari village in the end of 2016.