In an official statement issued, Ruben Melikyan, the ombudsman of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh), described he extradition of Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan by Belarus as an attempt to silence freedom of speech.
"Azerbaijan will not succeed in making the Lapshin case a legal precedent, as the underlying argument is inadmissible for any state or institution characterized as democratic."
"Moreover, the Lapshin case will become a counter-precedent, increasing the interest in visiting Artsakh among human rights activists and journalists honestly dedicated to the idea of freedom of speech. I call upon the Diaspora institutions, Armenian human rights [organizations and activists], and journalists to actively engage themselves in the process of making the Lapshin case a counter-precedent," reads the ombudsman’s address.
The blogger was earlier criticized by the Azerbaijani authorities for visiting Artsakh. After a subsequent trip to Baku with a Ukrainian passport, he published blog stories addressing the existing problems in the country and criticizing the policies pursued by the Azerbaijani regime.