Alexander Lapshin admits only to ‘moral guilt’ for ignoring ban on Karabakh entry and criticizing the Azerbaijani leader.
Travel blogger Alexander Lapshin (pictured) will spend three years in prison for illegally entering Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, a court in Baku has ruled.
Prosecutors said Lapshin engaged in “propagandizing the separatist regime” in Nagorno-Karabakh as well as entering the territory several times without Azerbaijan’s permission, The Moscow Times reports, citing Vesti.Az.
Lapshin, who holds Israeli, Russian, and Ukrainian citizenship, was detained in Belarus in December. He was extradited to Azerbaijan in February later in spite of objections from Israel, a major arms supplier to the government of Azeri leader Ilham Aliev.
“I’m guilty before the Azeri people only in moral terms, but by no means in a political aspect,” Vesti.Az cited Lapshin as telling the court on Wednesday.
JTA reports that Lapshin, 40, of Haifa, admitted entering Nagorno-Karabakh twice but told the court he was not aware of the Azerbaijani law against visiting the territory, which remains formally part of Azerbaijan 23 years after a ceasefire ended the bitter war with Armenia which ended with the territory and surrounding areas under Armenian control.
He apologized to the court for insulting Aliev in his blog. In the offending blog post he criticized Aliev’s statement that Azerbaijan could take Karabakh back by force, saying Aliev’s language “reminds me of the rhetoric of Arab states in relation to Israel: too much pathos and zero results,” according to the Moscow paper, citing Kommersant.
Russia would not request Lapshin’s extradition from Azerbaijan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday, RIA Novosti reported, according to the Azeri news agency APA.
Russian human rights ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova, however, said international conventions entitle Russia to demand Lapshin’s extradition in order to stand trial, and that “negotiations are under way,” The Moscow Times cites Interfax as reporting.
- Azerbaijani and Armenian forces have been locked in stalemate over Nagorno-Karabakh for years, and exchanges of gunfire occur almost daily. Tensions have been elevated since major clashes in April 2016 killed dozens of soldiers and civilians.
- Azerbaijan has used advanced Israeli short-range Spike missiles against Armenian forces, Jerusalem Online reported in June. Azerbaijan has purchased billions of dollars worth of Israeli arms in the past few years.
- Rights activists and Azeri dissidents say freedom of _expression_ and the independent media are at a low ebb under the Aliev regime. Although few local journalists now dare criticize the government, Aliev was honored as a “Friend of Journalists” by the Azerbaijani Press Council yesterday to mark the occasion of the opening of a new apartment building for journalists.
- All freedoms, including the freedom of speech, are guaranteed in Azerbaijan, Aliev said at the opening ceremony for the building, APA reports.