Court sentences blogger Lapshin to three-year imprisonment

The Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced the blogger Alexander Lapshin to three years of imprisonment on charges of his illegal visits to the Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani lands and a criminal conspiracy with the Armenians living there.

Lapshin was accused in accordance with articles 281.2 (public appeals directed against the state) and 318.2 (illegal border crossing) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. He violated Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.

However, during the judicial proceedings, Lapshin was acquitted of charges under the article 281.2 due to lack of evidence.

By the decision of the court, the blogger will serve his sentence in a general regime colony.

Helped by his accomplices in the occupied territories, Lapshin paid a number of visits to Azerbaijan’s occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The blogger was arrested in Minsk in late 2016 and transferred to Baku in February 2017.

The trial of Lapshin started on June 30 in the Baku Court on Grave Crimes. At the proceedings, Lapshin pleaded not guilty but acknowledged that he visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories twice.

Unauthorized visits to NagornoKarabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are considered illegal, and any individuals paying such visits are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's "black list".

The case of Alexander Lapshin has shown that no crime against Azerbaijan and its territorial integrity will go unpunished.