Azeri court jails blogger for illegal Karabakh visits

Alexander Lapshin faces 3 years in prison for entering Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territory

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - A Baku court on Thursday sentenced a blogger to three years in prison for "illegal" visits to occupied Azerbaijani territories.

The Baku Court on Grave Crimes said Alexander Lapshin had illegally entered Azerbaijan by visiting the Karabakh region, currently occupied by Armenia.

Azeri news agency APA reported that Lapshin, who holds Russian, Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship, entered Karabakh in April 2011 and in Oct. 2012

He was detained in Belarus last December; the country’s Supreme Court approved his extradition to Azerbaijan on Feb. 7.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in dispute over the occupied Karabakh region.

Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with Armenian military support, and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Kaynak:

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