Armenia has Applied to Belarus over Lapshin’s Case on Different Levels says Foreign Ministry

YEREVAN (Armenpress)—Armenia has applied to Belarus on different levels over blogger Alexander Lapshin’s case, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan told Armenpress.

“We have applied to the Belarusian side over that case on different levels,” Balayan said.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has announced during the farewell meeting with Armenian Ambassador to Belarus Armen Khachatryan that Armenia has never applied to him over Lapshin’s case.

“Armenia has never told me anything about Lapshin. Only one country, Azerbaijan, put him on the wanted list. When he was apprehended here I though why it happened right here. He could have gone anywhere else. Belarus would not have been involved in it. But he was caught. Interpol knew about it. We had to report and we did it as law-abiding people. What did we have to do with him? We had to extradite him to the country which had put him on the wanted list. Moreover, I will say it in public for the first time: no one wanted to take him back. They started to play this card later. He is the citizen of three countries, and neither of them needed him. They just wanted to get rid of this problem”, Lukashenko said.

Lapshin, the Russian-Israeli blogger who was extradited from Belarus to Azerbaijan on February 7, has been placed in the isolation cell in Azerbaijan’s state security service.

Lapshin was flown to Baku from Minsk on a special flight, escorted by state security agents. A group of reporters were waiting for Lapshin in Baku’s airport, but Lapshin didn’t give any comment to them.

The Belarus Supreme Court denied Lapshin’s appeal on the extradition verdict issued by the General Prosecutor of Belarus.