A court in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, sentenced Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin to three years in prison on Thursday after being charged with illegally visiting the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area in 2011 and 2012, an offense punishable by 5-7 years imprisonment.
Lapshin published articles following his visits calling for independence for the Nagorno-Karabakh region and was accused of insulting the Azeri president and damaging homeland security, an offense punishable by 20 years in prison. A letter of apology did not help.