“From the perspective of the Convention, the repatriation of the blogger is not legitimate for the Convention spells out specific provisions that given person cannot be extradited because of his political views. In addition, there are other legal issues associated with the qualification of the offense whether the access to the Nagorno-Karabakh territory can be considered as a crime by the Azerbaijani Criminal Code or not. If we follow the Azerbaijani legislation, the latter’s actions must be performed with the crossing of defense border. The latter has crossed a border that is beyond the defense of Azerbaijani authorities, Nagorno-Karabakh can never be observed as a territory of Azerbaijan,” said Simon Babayan, a lawyer of Chamber of Attorneys, today, at the “Hayk” club, referring to the Azerbaijani claim to extradite Russian citizen blogger Alexander Lapshin.
Recall that Lapshin known for his traveling notes on the internet years ago visited Karabakh twice and recognized it as an independent state, months ago, he criticized Ilham Aliyev, after which official Baku filed several criminal cases against the blogger and declare an international wanted. Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office has already submitted all necessary documents to Belarus law enforcement agencies for the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin. The lawyer noted that there is an agreement between Belarus and Russia which states that the citizens of two states enjoy equal rights, “The RF Constitution contains a prohibition to extradite its citizens by the demand of another state. In this respect, the decision issued by the Belarus Prosecutor’s Office is questionable.”
As mentioned by lawyer Ara Ghazaryan, Azerbaijan will be implicated against the world order, against the OSCE free expression, “Everyone who will criticize Azerbaijan’s policy against Nagorno-Karabakh will be viewed as a criminal … Lapshin’s case is a reason to appeal to different international organizations to prevent the extradition. Most probably, Lapshin will be exposed to torture on the basis of Armenophobia.”
The law enforcement authorities in Belarus have made a decision to extradite the blogger jailed after a recent visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. A deputy prosecutor general has met the request by the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s office, agreeing to embark on the necessary procedures to hand over Alexander Lapshin to Baku. Azerbaijan earlier blacklisted Lapshin, a citizen of Israel and Russia, for visiting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The blogger then conducted a second trip to Baku, using a Ukrainian passport as a travel document.
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