Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire
 Tuesday 5:25 PM MSK


Blogger Lapshin to stand trial in Azerbaijan

 BAKU. June 13

The case of Alexander Lapshin, who is charged in Azerbaijan with
illegal crossing of the border for visiting Karabakh, has been
submitted to a court, the Azerbaijani media said.

"The files of the criminal case against blogger Alexander Lapshin were
submitted to the court. Alovsyat Abbasov, a judge of the Baku Grave
Crimes Court, was appointed the judge in his case," the media reports
said.

"The preliminary hearing in the case of blogger Lapshin will take
place on June 22," his lawyer Eduard Chernin told Interfax.

According to Baku, Lapshin, a citizen of Russia and Israel, illegally
visited Nagorno-Karabakh without obtaining official permission from
Azerbaijan in April 2011 and October 2012, thus violating the
provisions of the laws 'On the State Border of the Republic of
Azerbaijan' and 'On Passports'. Apart from that, Lapshin called for
the recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
on social networking sites on April 6, 2016 and June 29, 2016.

Lapshin was included in the 'black list' for having visited
Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Azeri authorities. Such people
cannot enter Azerbaijan. However, Lapshin was able to enter Azerbaijan
through Georgia in June 2015, producing a Ukrainian passport with a
different spelling of his name.

The investigative department for grave crimes of the Azerbaijani
Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case on charges of
repeated public calls against the state and illegal crossing of
Azerbaijan's state border. A person convicted on these charges may get
a sentence of five to eight years in prison.

On December 16, 2016 it emerged that Lapshin had been detained in
Belarus at the request of Azerbaijan.

The Belarusian Supreme Court rejected Lapshin's appeal against his
extradition to Azerbaijan on February 7. He was extradited the same
day.

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