STEPANAKERT. - The actions of the Belarusian authorities against Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin are shocking.

Spokesperson for the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Asrtaskh) President, Davit Babayan, said the aforementioned, commenting upon the request of Armenian News – NEWS.am on the information regarding the decision of the Belarusian authorities to satisfy the request of Azerbaijan on Lapshin’s extradition.

“It is apparent that this is a gravest violation of international law. Unfortunately, one has to note that the country which itself suffered from the Nazi follows suit the latter, literally selling an innocent man,” Babayan noted.

He also recalled that it is not the first time Azerbaijan has been publicly violating the international law by making large investments. “We witnessed the same in the case of Ramil Safarov’s extradition, only it was the other way round: the criminal was handed over to his homeland, set free and declared a hero in violation of all possible laws,” Babayan noted.

In his words, if the Belarusian authorities still go all the way and Alexander Lapshin appears in Azerbaijan, this will mean the worst prospects for the Belarusian leadership itself.

“A government, which follows such values, will sooner or later be overthrown. Everyone will get what they deserve. Unfortunately, the Belarusian authorities now show that petrodollars, caviar and medals with the portraits of leaders are more valuable for them than rights and freedoms. This is in some sense the continuation of Auschwitz, broadly speaking,” Babayan said.  

Earlier, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry spoke against the arrest and extradition of Alexander Lapshin, pointing to the need to observe the freedom of speech. The Israeli side tried to set Alexander Lapshin free in exchange for apologies, but it didn’t manage to.

In mid-December, Lapshin, who is also a citizen of Russia, wrote that he was arrested in Minsk upon the request of Azerbaijan, where he was included in the “black list” for visiting the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic without agreeing with the Azerbaijani authorities.