The Minsk city court on Thursday dismissed the complaint of blogger Alexander Lapshin in connection with the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

Lapshin’s attorney told Armenian News – NEWS.am that the court considered the complaint for several hours and finally dismissed it, justifying this step by the lawfulness of the decision made by the prosecutor’s office.

“The decision of the city court will definitely be appealed to the Supreme Court. Tomorrow we will receive the copy of the decision,” the attorney noted, adding that the family and attorneys of the blogger are upset by the decision, since they hoped that the court would be fair. Ten days are required for appealing the complaint to the Supreme Court. The final deadline for the appeal is February 5.

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.