Lapshin: "My fault in the moral plane"

Baku/19.07.17/Turan: Baku Court for Serious Crimes in the trial of the blogger Alexander Lapshin on July 19 continued the final statements of the lawyer and Lapshin himself took place. Lawyer Eduard Chernin stated about the "groundlessness and illegality" of the accusations put forward by Lapshin. According to him, Lapshin did not commit the actions provided for in Article 281.2 (public appeals directed against the state) of the Criminal Code. According to the lawyer, Lapshin's publications on trips to the occupied territories were "informative" and did not contain appeals. In addition, according to Chernin, the content of Article 281 refers to acts of a "violent nature", but this was not in the blogger's articles.

As for the charge under Article 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border of the Republic of Azerbaijan) of the Criminal Code, the lawyer believes that there are no regulations regulating travel to the occupied territories in the legislation. On the other hand, the lawyer continued, accusing Lapshin of illegally crossing the border, avoiding border control illegally, since there were no border points in the occupied territories.

He also pointed out that the witnesses at the trial did not give evidence on the merits of the allegations against Lapshin. The lawyer asked to justify Lapshin. Lapshin himself said that he does not accept the accusations brought against him. He said that he "did not call for anything", "he had no contacts with the Armenian authorities." According to the blogger, his "fault before Azerbaijan is in the moral plane, but not in the legal". He noted that the information on Nagorno-Karabakh he used on the Internet only from Armenian sources. Lapshin admitted that he used some incorrect and humiliating expressions against the Azerbaijani people. At the same time, he noted that during his detention in Azerbaijan he felt only benevolent attitude. According to Lapshin, he now understands how important the territorial integrity of the country is for the Azerbaijani people, like any other people. Lapshin said that he repents of causing moral suffering to the Azerbaijani people. Lapshin expressed hope that the Karabakh conflict will be resolved within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. After this the court retired to the meeting. The verdict is scheduled for 10:30 on 20 July. Earlier, the prosecutor asked to sentence Lapshin to 6.5 years of imprisonment. -06C--