Trial in the case of Lapshin trial is over

Baku / 11.07.17 / Turan: At the trial in the case of blogger Alexander Lapshin on Wednesady, it was announced that the investigation was completed after an expert from the Judicial Expertise Center of the Justice Ministry, Almaz Bayramova, made a speech. She was interrogated at the request of the lawyer of the defendant Eduard Chernin. Bayramova gave an expert opinion on the content in the publications of Lapshin appeals against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The lawyer asked specifically in what terms this appeal was, and the expert replied that in Lapshin's allegations: "Where there is Armenia, there is Karabakh."

The lawyer asked what other expressions were used against territorial integrity. The expert replied that Lapshin represented Nagorno-Karabakh as "Artsakh", and his publications presented the region as an Armenian land. She also pointed to the irony of Lapshin regarding the "black list" of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, where people and illegally visiting persons and statements of Lapshin are brought in, that he can visit these places many times.

Lapshin himself said that he used the term "Artsakh" as the name of the region in Armenian. In addition, in the expression "Where there is Armenia, there is Karabakh," he meant the geographic proximity of Karabakh to Armenia. Lapshin also pointed out that he did not say that Nagorno-Karabakh is not the territory of Armenia.

Further, the lawyer petitioned to exclude 10 witnesses - internally displaced persons - from the materials of the case. Chernin recalled that the witnesses talked about the consequences of the Karabakh conflict.

"The witnesses talked about our common pain, but their testimony did not concern the essence of the accusations brought against him," said the lawyer.

He noted that according to the Criminal Procedure Code of Azerbaijan, witnesses may be persons who witnessed a criminal offense. The lawyer requested to exclude from the list of evidence the testimony of these witnesses. However, prosecutor Nasir Bayramov objected, noting that the defense had to speak on this issue at the preparatory meeting.

Judge Alovsat Abbasov refused to grant the petition, saying that the assessment of evidence is given in the preparation of the final decision. After that, the judge announced the completion of the judicial investigation.

The prosecutor asked for time to prepare for the final speech, and the meeting was scheduled for July 14 at 14 hours.

Attorney Chernin, commenting on the results of the trial to a correspondent of Turan, said that the defense believes that Lapshin's fault was not proved.

Witnesses talked about the Karabakh conflict and this applies to every citizen of Azerbaijan, and to some extent, each of us is a victim. However, the testimony of the witnesses was not relevant to the charges brought against Lapshin specifically," said the lawyer. In his opinion, the expert did not clarify what Lapshin's calls to territorial integrity consisted of. Lapshin himself noted that he visited Nagorno Karabakh as a tourist, having nothing against Azerbaijanis and he respects the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.-06D-