ArmInfo.The Upper Court of Belarus dismissed the Russian- Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin's appeal on legality and validity of the Minsk City Court decision, which recognized the Belarus' General Prosecutor's decision on Baku's extradition request to be a legal one.
The appeal in the Upper Court took place behind closed doors. Lapshin was not present. The Upper Court is valid since the publication. Alexander Lapshin was arrested in Minsk by Azerbaijani request in December. He is enlisted in the black list of Azerbaijan for visiting not recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh Republic without coordinating it with Azerbaijani authorities. Such individuals' enter to Azerbaijan is forbidden. Nevertheless, in June 2015, Lapshin entered Azerbaijan through Georgian border with Ukrainian Passport. To pass the border control and appear in Baku, the blog writer managed only due to alternate writing of his name in the Passport, Alexander to Olexander. After this Azerbaijan claimed for his international search for law violation on "State Border" and the migration regulation of the state. On January 17, Belarus satisfied the Azerbaijani extradition request for Alexander Lapshin. Minsk City Court dismissed the appeal of the lawyers to change the judgment of the first instance. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is against the extradition of Lapshin to Azerbaijani authorities: "We are against extradition of Russian citizens, arrested in this or that country to the third part".
Meanwhile, on February 3rd the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko asked the Upper Court to execute to decision as fast as possible, as he found the decision absolutely legal. "We should have extradited him long before. I instructed you-give him by law. By the law comes the following- Russians want him? No, he is not an Israeli citizen I guess. Azerbaijan did not address us, but Interpol. We, according to Interpol decision, arrested him and by the law have to extradite him to Azerbaijan. We could free him. But it is not right as we will be treated the same way when we will need to arrest someone", added the President of Belarus. Belarus has no reason to dismiss the Azerbaijani request for Lapshin, he noted.