ArmInfo.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko instructed to study the case of blog writer Alexander Lapshin's extradition to Azerbaijan, he stated about this at the meeting with representatives of Belarusian and foreign mass media, BELTA informs.
The Belarusian President said that when the information related to the blog writer appeared in mass media he instructed the foreign ministry to contact relevant agencies in Azerbaijan, Israel and Russia. "I instructed the Minister to talk to his counterparts and solve the issue appropriately so that the person would not become a hostage. There were such solutions and if Israel, Azerbaijan and Russia agreed we would welcome their decision. However, they were reluctant to reach agreement" the President noted.
At the same time Lukashenko stressed that Belarus has no reasons to not extradite him to Azerbaijan. "Azerbaijan has applied not to Belarus but to Interpol. He was detained based on Interpol's decision. And according to the laws and procedures we must send him to Azerbaijan. Of course, we can set him free, but this would be wrong. You say that appealing is underway but I am sure that the court will support our decision as it is legal", the President of Belarus summarized.
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. Lapshin is included in Azerbaijan's black list for visiting Karabakh and he was forbidden to enter Azerbaijan. However, in June 2015 Lapshin arrived in Azerbaijan via Georgia with his Ukrainian passport. After that Azerbaijan put him on wanted list for violation of the law on state border and migration code of the country. On January 20 General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus fulfilled request of Azerbaijan's General Prosecutor's Office on extradition of Russian and Israeli citizen famous blog writer Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan. On January 26 Municipal Court of Minsk has left unchanged Belarusian Prosecutor General's decision on Russian- Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin's extradition. Minsk municipal court discussed the complaint for several hours and dismissed the complaint explaining its decision with lawfulness of the decision made by the Prosecutor's Office.