“We are always concerned with the issue of press freedom. That is something that we speak to almost every day,” Spokesperson for the US Department of State John Kirby told a daily briefing, when asked to comment on Azerbaijan’s demands to extradite Israeli-Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin.
“First, I’d say this is really something for the relevant countries to speak to, especially when you’re talking about extradition requests. That’s really for them to speak to. Obviously, press freedom is important to us, and we talk about it all the time. I don’t have any specific information with respect to this case, but I’d refer you to the relevant countries to speak to that,” the Spokesperson said.
“We are always concerned with the issue of press freedom. That is something that we speak to almost every day, sadly. We have to speak to it every day. So certainly, our concern over the freedom of journalists to do their jobs remains very robust, but I don’t have any specific information on this case,” Kirby said.
The Government of Belarus has arrested Israeli-Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin based on request from Azerbaijan. The Government of Azerbaijan accuses him of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh and also some public statements that were not favorable for the Azerbaijani Government – particularly, as they phrased it, because there were public calls against the state by Lapshin. Now the Government of Azerbaijan also demands the extradition of Lapshin.
Israeli Government resisted this. Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov again resisted extradition in his public statement. And the Committee to Protect Journalists from New York also called for unconditional release of the blogger.
