YEREVAN. - The extradition of Alexander Lapshin was carried out skirting the interstate and international legal regulations, reads the statement issued by the Chamber of Advocates of Armenian.

According to the statement, the study of the chronology of events indicates the political motivation of the process.

It is also noted that the extradition shall not be carried out if there are strong grounds to suppose that the request is motivated by persecuting a specific person. In fact, one of the two charges brought against Lapshin is not subject to prosecution even in Azerbaijan: this concerns the illegal crossing of state border which is controlled by Azerbaijan. However, Azerbaijan does not control the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), this meaning that Lapshin couldn’t have violated the norm. The second part of the charges—calls against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan—is not subject to prosecution in Belarus, the document reads.

Lapshin’s extradition contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, under which everyone has a right to speech. Considering this, Belarus had no right to extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan, the statement says.

It also recalls the process round the Azerbaijani officer and killer Ramil Safarov, who was extradited by Hungary to Azerbaijan, where he was made a hero.

“It should be noted that Azerbaijan declared 180 journalists personae non grata for visiting Karabakh. The process round Lapshin aims to isolate Nagorno-Karabakh through terror and creation of a threat for potential visitors,” the statement reads.