Blogger Alexander Lapshin has lodged a complaint about the Belarusian authorities’ actions to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
“Has anyone ever doubted that I want a tougher line on Belarusian and Azerbaijani authorities that committed a crime against me? In addition to European courts and a number of human rights courts, it is the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva that is probing into what happened to me. Yesterday I received an objection letter from the Belarusian side (they claim that they acted within the bounds of the agreement with Azerbaijan and they do not admit any wrongdoing),” he said.
According to Lapshin, representatives of Belarus wrote a long letter which is actually a copy of the verdict delivered by the Minsk City Court when the blogger appealed against the decision of his extradition to Azerbaijan (as a result of the Court rejected the appeal). Alexander Lapshin believes that the quest for justice may take longer than a year.
“The Geneva-based Belarusian lawyers’ incompetence is clearly seen as they took no notice of the fact neither Russia nor Israel could demand my extradition during my being arrested in Minsk. Do you know why? According to Belarusian law, their Prosecutor General’s Office has the right to refuse extradition to a third country (in this case,to Azerbaijan) and to deliver a person to a country of their citizenship provided that this country has opened a criminal case and requires extradition for criminal prosecution. No criminal cases were initiated against me either in Israel or in Russia; consequently, they had no right to ask for my extradition in accordance with Belarusian law,” Lapshin stressed.
Mr Lapshin is a citizen of Russia, Israel, and Ukraine.
Azerbaijani authorities accused Lapshin of violating the state border law. He got into the “black list” for visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic without approval from the authorities. In December 2016 the blogger was detained in Minsk, and in February 2017 he was handed to Azerbaijan, where he was sentenced to three years in prison. Lapshin claims there was attempt on his life when he was in jail. In turn, Baku says that Lapshin attempted suicide.
In September 2917, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev signed an order to pardon Alexander Lapshin.
