Crimean Tatars: Activist Ilmi Umerov to Face Renewed Legal Charges by Russian Occupation Force
Photo courtesy of QHA
Mr Ilmi Umerov, Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the community’s legislative body, will be prosecuted for renewed and, as yet, unknown charges on 27 January 2017. The Russian secret service’s ambiguous approach to Mr Umerov’s case is especially worrying against the background of the human rights activist’s arbitrary detention in a psychiatric facility for three weeks in August and September 2016. Mr Umerov has, furthermore, been added to a so-called “list of terrorists and extremists” in early January 2017 for opposing Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, which further increases his vulnerability to arbitrary treatment in front of Russian courts.
Below is an article published by QHA:
On Friday, January 27 [2017], Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerov will be charged in a new version. Presumably, the linguistic examination results will be included in the case file.
“Yesterday the FSB investigator phoned. We agreed to meet on Friday, January 27 [2017], at 14:30. They intend to bring amended charges against me (re-charge). I do not really understand what this means. After the "meeting" I will inform within permitted limits,” Umerov wrote on his page on Facebook.
In December last year, the Kyiv District Court of Simferopol refused to provide the copy of the linguistic examination in the criminal case to the lawyers of Ilmi Umerov.
Later, the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People published a last-year’s video, which investigators showed him during questioning on December 16 [2016].
