ArmInfo. The Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus has refuted the information that Russian and Israel have applied for extradition of blog writer Alexander Lapshin to Belarus.
To note, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its disappointment in this decision of Belarus, and noted that the decision does not comply with the spirit of the allied relations between Russia and Belarus. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, in turn, pointed out that Israel keeps a close watch on the Lapshin-related developments and keeps in touch with the relevant sides via diplomatic canals.
On Feb 7 the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Lapshin's complaint about the legitimacy and substantiation of the decision of the Minsk City Court, which declared the decision of the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office about extradition to Baku as legitimate. On Feb 7 evening Lapshin was sent to Baku. To recall, Alexander Lapshin was detained in mid-December in Minsk upon Azerbaijan's request. Baku "blacklisted" Lapshin for visiting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic without coordinating his decision with the Azeri authorities. On January 17, the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus satisfied Azerbaijan's request about Lapshin's extradition. The Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry has also responded to Minsk's extradition of the Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan. "The verdict of the Supreme Court of Belarus, which has upheld the decision to hand over well-known blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan for criminal prosecution is not only an expression of outright support for the policy of intimidating foreign citizens pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities, but also a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights to the freedom of movement and freedom of speech. Intending to hand over Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan at the request of Baku, based on the trumped-up and politically biased case, the Belarusian authorities demonstrate that they put political benefit above democratic norms and principles of legitimacy and justice," the NKR Foreign Ministry said in a statement.