Belarusian Ambassador to Armenia urged to refrain from hasty conclusions related to extradition of Russian blog writer Lapshin to Azerbaijan
ArmInfo.Belarusian Ambassador to Armenia Igor Nazaruk urged to refrain from hasty conclusions related to Minsk court decision on extradition of Russian blog writer
Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno Karabakh. "Haste
makes waste", the Belarusian diplomat told journalists on January 25
on the sidelines of Armenian-Belarusian business meeting.
According to Nazaruk it is wrong to expect relevant assessment from
the embassy of Belarus in Armenia urging to discuss this topic with
those structures, who are aware of it. "The Embassy does not possess
the information, you expect from me. Armenia has General Prosecutor's
Office and other agencies, which can solve this issue in cooperation
with their Belarusian partners. There is nothing easier than buying a
ticket to Misnk and solving all the issues at once not spreading
them", the diplomat stated.
The Ambassador also noted that proceeding issues related to this or
that procedure are very sensitive and one should not forget about
secrecy of investigation.
To remind, 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. 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.
To note, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister stated at the
annual press conference in Moscow, commenting the detention of
Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin in Minsk due to
Azerbaijan's request for his visit to Nagorno Karabakh. "Russia is
against criminalization of journalists or simply private persons
visiting any region", he said. "Second, we are against extradition of
Russian nationals arrested in any country, to third countries. We had
consular contact with Lapshin, we know that he is also an Israeli
citizen and Israeli diplomats had contact with him as well. We will
take all the steps to solve this situation within the respect to all
the rights of Russian citizen, which is also an Israeli citizen,"
Lavrov accentuated.