Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire
July 20, 2017 Thursday 3:27 PM MSK



Russia to demand extradition of blogger convicted in Azerbaijan

MOSCOW. July 20

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General's Office may
demand the extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin, Russian Human
Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said.

Such negotiations are under way, she said.

"The Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General's Office may demand
his [Lapshin's] extradition under the 1993 and 2007 international
convention on legal assistance in criminal matters and seek his
extradition for criminal proceedings on the territory of our country.
As I know, such work is being conducted, negotiations are underway,'
Moskalkova told reporters on Thursday.

The extradition of Lapshin by Belarus to Azerbaijan is a violation of
the rights of a Russian citizen, she said. "I had asked Belarus not to
extradite him to Azerbaijan. But unfortunately, a different decision
was made. It seems to be it's a violation of the rights of a Russian
citizen," Moskalkova said.

The Baku court for grave crimes on Thursday sentenced blogger Lapshin,
a citizen of Russia and Israel, who was charged with illegally
visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, to three years in jail, an Interfax
correspondent reported from the courtroom.

According to the court decision, Lapshin will serve his sentence in a
general-security prison.

According to earlier reports, Lapshin did not admit his guilt at the
trial, saying that Nagorno-Karabakh was a territory of Azerbaijan. He
said he had visited Karabakh as a tourist and had no political
purposes.

According to Baku, Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli citizen, illegally
visited Nagorno-Karabakh without obtaining Azerbaijan's official
permission in April 2011 and October 2012, thus violating the laws on
Azerbaijan's state border and on passports. Apart from that, Lapshin
called for the recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic on social networks on April 6, 2016 and June 29, 2016.

Lapshin was put on the 'black list' for having visited
Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Azeri authorities. Such people
cannot enter Azerbaijan. However, Lapshin was able to enter Azerbaijan
through Georgia in June 2015, producing a Ukrainian passport with a
different spelling of his name.

The investigative department for grave crimes of the Azerbaijani
Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case on charges of
repeated public calls against the state and illegal crossing of
Azerbaijan's state border. A person convicted of these charges may
receive a sentence of five to eight years in prison.

On December 16, 2016 it emerged that Lapshin had been detained in
Belarus at the request of Azerbaijan.

The Belarusian Supreme Court rejected Lapshin's appeal against his
extradition to Azerbaijan on February 7. He was extradited on the same
day.

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