Lukashenko accepted "Our decision"

Blogger Alexander Lapshin was extradited to Azerbaijan

Everything fit on one day, February 7: a closed meeting of the Supreme Court of Belarus in the case of the extradition of the blogger Alexander Lapshin, and the actual extradition - by a special team that flew from Azerbaijan. In fact, on Wednesdays from Minsk to Baku, a flight aircraft flies. But Lapshina was sent by a specialist. It seems that the causal relationship in this story is completely different: at first the plane was sent from Baku after it, and then a meeting of the Supreme Court was quickly held in Minsk.

From the court-to the airport, the logistics is impeccable, although expensive: jets to drive back and forth for each extraditable-you know, eastern barking. So they don’t drive. But Lapshin is a special case. Judging by the speed, the issue of extradition was personally resolved by Alexander Lukashenko and Ilham Aliyev through the internship. No wonder Lukashenko last Friday at a press conference demanded that Azerbaijan immediately issue Lapshin: “Of course, we can release it at all, but it will be wrong. What grounds do we have to give it to Azerbaijan? No. He is now appealing something, but I’m sure that the court will still support our decision, because it is legal. ” And he added, turning to the Minister of the Interior Igor Shunevich: “You already send him as soon as possible” - despite the fact that even the date of the hearing was not yet scheduled.

Note that there was no talk of any justice and objective examination. It’s just that “our decision”, which is obliged to support the court. So it turned out: it was urgent to follow the order and quickly hold a meeting of the Supreme Court, adjusting to the arrival of the Azerbaijani aircraft.

Let me remind you of the beginning of the story: Blogger Alexander Lapshin, who occupies the 51st line in the ranking of the Russian-speaking “Living Journal”, was put on the wanted list by the Azerbaijani authorities last fall. In the list of Person Non Grathin, Lapshin was already several years old - after visiting Nagorno -Karabakh in 2011 and 2012. The list is 623 people. Nobody puts them on the wanted list, they simply cannot enter Azerbaijan. But Lapshin - entered last summer. Being a citizen of three states - Russia, Ukraine and Israel - he presented a Ukrainian passport on the border, in which he was recorded by Oleksandr, and not Alexander. That's the whole trick. (I remember, five years ago, the diplomats of the European Union in Minsk, who made up the black list of Belarusian officials, asked us, former political prisoners, to record all the options for writing names and surnames, because Sidorov, for example, can be recorded in the Belarusian passport and as Sidoraov and as a Sidarau.) So, with the help of one letter, you can become invisible for any lists.

If Lapshin simply went to Baku according to the Ukrainian passport, that would be all over. But the blogger boasted in his LiveJournal, how he successfully fools Azerbaijan. This was the reason for the initiation of a criminal case and a wanted list under two articles: “Illegal entry into Azerbaijan” and “Public Anti -Constitutional Calls”. In Azerbaijan, Alexander Lapshin threatens up to eight years in prison.

He was detained in Minsk on December 15 last year. Lapshin’s wife immediately turned to the embassies and fores of all states whose citizen he is. But for almost a month of consuls they did not allow him. Only on January 13, Israeli diplomats were able to see Lapshin. They convinced him to write a letter with an apology to Ilham Aliyev and handed this letter to colleagues from the Azerbaijani embassy. Two days later, Lapshin was visited by employees of the Russian Embassy in Minsk.

On January 17, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow stated that Russia and Israel are categorically against the extradition of their citizen Lapshin. On the same day in the evening, the Prosecutor General of Belarus decided to extradite. Lapshin and his lawyers appealed the decision in the Minsk City Court. On January 26, the city court left a decision on extradition in force, and the Supreme Court remained. After Lukashenko’s statement at a press conference, the decision of the highest instance court became obvious, it was possible not to hold a meeting anymore.

Lapshin’s lawyers, after the meeting, filed an application at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide him with additional protection. If a person does not ask him to provide him with a refugee status, but has fears that in the country of expulsion he may be in danger, he has the right to seek additional protection. Its provision in the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And while his case is being considered, extradition is postponed. Therefore, lawyers said after a court session that in the near future their client would not be extradited. They knew the procedure in pieces of paper, but could not assume that the plane behind Lapshin had already flew out of Baku, and Annushka poured oil.

Alexander Lukashenko, during that press conference, tried, however, to transfer all responsibility for the fate of the blogger to Israel. He said that not a single hair from Lapshin’s head would fall, since Azerbaijan and Israel have absolutely wonderful relations. But he personally made the decision on extradition - Lukashenko did not hide this. On the contrary, he emphasized that “our decision” has already been made, and the court only remains to put a signature. Many analysts suggest that for him this is another opportunity to make Russia: you opposed the issuance there, and we wanted to spit on you and give out.

But it seems that the matter is not in Russia. Three passports are a different story, and it is different. In November last year, a month before the arrest of Lapshin in Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko visited Azerbaijan. There, Ilham Aliyev awarded him the Order of Heydar Aliyev, the highest state award. Alexander Lukashenko kissed the order and said: “Ilham Geydarovich, I thank you very much for our friendship. And believe me, I will work out. ”

And then the case turned up. It was just required to send an impudent blogger to Azerbaijan. And all - worked. Now it is free from obligations and promises, you can start over.