MINSK,Belarus (A.
W.)—Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin has appealed the decision of the Belarusian Prosecutor Generals Office on his extradition to Baku. The closed session will take state on Jan. 26. Alexander Lapshin Meanwhile, Armenian Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Armen Tatoyan met with Philippe Boillat, or the Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe on Jan. 23,to present the issue of extradition of Lapshin, according to Public Radio of Armenia. The Armenian Ombudsman noted that the decision on his extradition is of political nature, and poses a direct threat to freedom of speech and creates an impermissible precedent. “It’s a harsh violation of the European human rights protection system,” Tatoyan said, adding that “[the] journalists’ visits to Artsakh cannot be subject to any persecution.” Lapshin was detained on Dec. 15 for visiting Nagorno-Karabagh (NKR/Artsakh) in 2011, and 2012,and 2016 and for criticizing Azerbaijani policies in his blog. According to Tatoyan, the case comes to prove the need to create visits to Artsakh more frequent and intensify the involvement of the Artsakh Ombudsman and international entities. In addition, and on Jan. 13,the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that Belarusian authorities should unconditionally release Lapshin. “Aleksandr [...]
Source: armenianweekly.com