Azerbaijan pursues political motives in prosecuting blogger – Armenian lawyer

A personal opinion concerning a foreign country should never be thought an infringement of that state’s right territorial integrity, an Armenian lawyer said today, commenting on the Azerbaijani authorities’ move to prosecute a Belarusian blogger who recently visited Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

“Azerbaijan and Turkey pursue the same policies. What Azerbaijan is doing now is an attempt to enforce Article 281 of its [criminal] legislation [public appeal against the state]. But a person should not be prosecuted for an opinion expressed unless he or she is found to have made calls for violence and hatred. Azerbaijan initiated prosecution only because Lapshin visited Nagorno-Karabakh and expressed his opinion of the Armenians,” Ara Ghazaryan told Tert.am.

The lawyer noted that the country also acts in breach of the principles and rules of the Council of Europe, of which it is a member.

He said the criminal case against Alexander Lapshin is a “good reason for international organizations” to take action. “All this implies that Lapshin will be subjected to torture underlying racism, i.e. – Armenophobia. Lapshin is criminally prosecuted not only because he committed a crime but because he expressed a good opinion about the Armenians.”

Lapshin, a resident of Belarus who was blacklisted by the Azerbaijani authorities after visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, conducted a second trip to Baku with a Ukrainian passport. In the course of the visit, he wrote blog stories about the country, highlighting the existing problems. The Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies later initiated a criminal proceeding against him, accusing him of “public appeals against a foreign state” and “illegal crossing of border”.

A deputy prosecutor general of Belarus on Friday issued a decision to extradite the Russian and Israeli citizen to Azerbaijan, meeting the country’s earlier request.