{"id":2311,"date":"2017-02-07T15:51:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T15:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2311"},"modified":"2017-02-08T15:53:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T15:53:55","slug":"belarus-extradites-russian-blogger-to-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2311","title":{"rendered":"Belarus Extradites Russian Blogger To Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>RFE\/RL<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">MINSK &#8212; Russian blogger Aleksandr Lapshin was flown from Minsk to Baku over objections from Moscow that he be sent Russia.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2312\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2312\" style=\"width: 455px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin-info.hhd.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Lapshin-extradition.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2312\" src=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin-info.hhd.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Lapshin-extradition.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"455\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Lapshin-extradition.jpg 587w, https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Lapshin-extradition-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2312\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksandr Lapshin is collected by Azerbaijani security forces upon his arrival in Baku.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lapshin&#8217;s extradition to Azerbaijan on February 7 occurred hours after the Belarusian Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a lower court to send Lapshin to Baku.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Russian blogger, who also has Israeli citizenship, is wanted by Azerbaijan on allegations of supporting the independence of Azerbaijan&#8217;s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Belarusian Deputy State Prosecutor Alyaksey Stuk signed the extradition order on January 18.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lapshin, who lives in Moscow and writes a Russian-language travel blog, was detained in Minsk in mid-December on the basis of Baku&#8217;s extradition request.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Azerbaijani prosecutors accuse Lapshin of illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh in 2011 and 2012 and calling for the recognition of the breakaway region&#8217;s independence by posting two statements online.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Minsk to &#8220;unconditionally&#8221; release Lapshin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Lapshin should not be jailed for expressing his opinions or traveling to a disputed region,&#8221; Nina Ognianova, CPJ&#8217;s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said in a January 13 statement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If Lapshin is convicted in Baku, he could face up to eight years in prison there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>RFE\/RL MINSK &#8212; Russian blogger Aleksandr Lapshin was flown from Minsk to Baku over objections from Moscow that he be sent Russia. Lapshin&#8217;s extradition to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2311\" title=\"Belarus Extradites Russian Blogger To Azerbaijan\">[more &gt;&gt;&gt;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conflicts","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2313,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions\/2313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}