YEREVAN. – Opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan called to gather for a protest action near the embassy of Belarus in Armenia.

The participants will protest against extradition of blogger Alenxander Lapshin to Azerbaijan. The call was joined by MP from ruling Republican Party of Armenia Khosrov Harutyunyan. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the decision of the Prosecutor General on extraditing Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan. In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan, but with a Ukrainian passport. Subsequently, he issued several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. Afterward, the Azerbaijani authorities issued an international search for this famous blogger. And on December 15, 2016, he was detained in the Belarus capital city of Minsk, and based on this international search.

On January 26, the Minsk city court dismissed the complaint of blogger Alexander Lapshin over the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

According to the experts and human rights defenders, Lapshin’s case may become a horrible precedent limiting the freedom of speech of foreigners and freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.

 On Tuesday evening Blogger Alexander Lapshin was brought to Baku.