Tuesday, January 24 2017 12:01

ArmInfo. Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Armenian Delegation to PACE, urged Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks to react to the case of the Russian-Israeli blog writer Alexander Lapshin and to prevent his  extradition from Belarus to Azerbaijan. 

The Armenian lawmaker recalled that Baku's "black list" includes over  600 personae non gratae, including 180 journalists, who visited  Nagorno-Karabakh. She considers that Azerbaijan's behavior violates  freedom of speech and that this issue should be discussed both at  PACE and other structures. "Does PACE need thousands of people  included in this list to react finally? How many journalists should  be put on the Interpol wanted list at Baku's request to make us break  the silence? It's time to react to the disgraceful policy of  Azerbaijan and its violations of freedom of speech, media and  conscience," she stressed.        

To note, on January 20, General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus made a  decision to fulfill the request of Azerbaijan's General Prosecutor's  Office on extradition of Russian and Israeli citizen, well-known blog  writer Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreign Ministry  has told ArmInfo that the Russian Embassy in Minsk is taking all  measures to protect the rights and interests of the Russian-Israeli  blog writer Alexander Lapshin.  

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.  

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.