Azerbaijan convicts blogger Lapshin to 3 years in prison for traveling to Karabakh

Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
July 20, 2017 Thursday 1:50 PM MSK


Azerbaijan convicts blogger Lapshin to 3 years in prison for traveling
to Karabakh

BAKU. July 20



The Baku Court on Grave Crimes on Thursday found prominent blogger
Alexander Lapshin, a citizen of Russia and Israel, guilty of illegally
visiting Nagorno-Karabakh and sentenced him to three years in a
general security penitentiary, an Interfax correspondent reported from
the courtroom.

The prosecution had asked the court to sentence Lapshin to six years
and six months in prison last Friday.

Delivering his last plea, Lapshin regretted his visit to
Nagorno-Karabakh without Baku's consent. "I have to apologize to the
Azerbaijani people only because my actions caused their moral
sufferings. I understand how much Nagorno-Karabakh is important to
Azerbaijan. I have never established any criminal links with the
Armenian government," Lapshin said.

He said he hoped the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh would be settled through preserving Azerbaijan's
integrity.

Lapshin's lawyer Eduard Chernin asked the court to acquit his client.

During the proceedings, Lapshin pleaded not guilty of the charges
brought against him and said that Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan's
territory. He said he had traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh for purely
touristic purposes and his trips did not have any political agenda.

According to Baku, Lapshin, a Russian-Israeli citizen, illegally
visited Nagorno-Karabakh without obtaining Azerbaijan's official
permission in April 2011 and October 2012, thus violating the laws on
Azerbaijan's state border and on passports. Apart from that, Lapshin
called for the recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic on social networks on April 6, 2016 and June 29, 2016.

Lapshin was put on 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 of these charges may
receive 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 on the same
day.

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