ArmInfo. The extradition of Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin violates international law standards, the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia says in a statement sent to ArmInfo.
The statement reads that the analysis of the course of events demonstrates that the process is politically charged and neglects the intranational and interstate legal standards.
The statement points out that no extradition is carried out if there are strong grounds to suppose that the request is driven by persecution against a specific person.
One part of the charges arraigned against Lapshin is not criminally punishable even in Azerbaijan - the matter concerns illegal crossing of a state border, whereas the border of the NKR, which is not under Azerbaijan's control, cannot be considered a state border of Azerbaijan. The other part of the charges is not criminally punishable in Belarus - the matter concerns the calls against territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The extradition of Lapshin runs counter to the Declaration on Human Rights, which says that everyone has the right to freedom of expression. That being said, Belarus had no right to extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan, the statement says.
The Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia recalls the process around Azeri officer Ramil Safarov (who murdered Armenian officer with an axe in Hungary, while the latter was asleep), whom Hungary extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was to serve his sentence, but Safarov was set free once back in Baku by the decision of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
"It should be noted that Azerbaijan has declared 180 journalists personae non gratae for visiting Karabakh. The process around Lapshin aims to isolate Nagorno-Karabakh by means of terror and to endanger the security of the NKR people and the potential visitors," the statement says.
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.