The case involving Israeli Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin has yet again demonstrated that the main part of Azerbaijani media reports is based on either unverified data or sheer assumptions.

As case in point, Haqqin.az news agency of Azerbaijan reported—citing Regnum news agency of Russia—that Ukraine, allegedly, had not responded to Azerbaijan’s request for extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan. In this regard, the Azerbaijani media directly accused Arsen Avakov, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine—rather, his Armenian descent.

Without exerting efforts toward verifying the authenticity of this “information,” the said Azerbaijani news agency begun to list the errors of the said Ukrainian ministry’s employees of Armenian ancestry.

And when the Azerbaijani media finally asked the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan, however, it was found out that the latter had not petitioned to Ukraine for Lapshin’s extradition.

As per Eldar Sultanov, Head of Press Service at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan, “the Prosecutor General’s Office has no motives for petitioning to the Ukrainian colleagues, since the Interpol was engaged in the search for the blogger. The Office petitioned to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus, for extraditing Lapshin.”

To note, however, the claims, according to which Azerbaijan had sought the blogger by way of the Interpol, are contrary to the statement by the representative of its Belarusian organization.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan.

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan--but with a Ukrainian passport--and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger's appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutor's Office.

On the evening of the same day, the famous blogger was extradited to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.

According to analysts and human rights defenders, however, Alexander Lapshin’s case may become an appalling precedent that curtails the freedom of speech of foreigners and the freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.