Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said that he had approved the appointment of a senior Crimean Tatar politician, who spent nearly three years imprisoned by Russia, as ambassador to Turkey.
Zelensky said in his evening address that he approved a decision to send “Nariman Dzhelyal to Turkey” as ambassador.
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The 44-year-old former journalist and community leader for the persecuted predominantly Muslim minority group from Moscow-annexed Crimea was released in a rare prisoner swap involving civilians earlier this year.
He is the deputy head of the Mejlis, the traditional Tatar assembly in Crimea which Russia banned after annexing the peninsula in 2014. Many Crimean Tatars opposed annexation and have since been detained and jailed.
Dzhelyal was arrested in September 2021 and sentenced in 2022 to 17 years in prison on a terrorist charge for allegedly conspiring to blow up a gas pipeline near the regional capital of Simferopol along with several other activists, who likewise denied guilt.
Amnesty International recognised Dzhelyal as a prisoner of conscience and called his sentencing “another blow to human rights” in Crimea.
He was released in June this year and reunited with his family in Kyiv.
Other prominent Crimean Tatars include Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustam Umerov and Eurovision winner Jamala.
Zelensky in May appointed his former military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny as ambassador to Britain after dismissing him in February.
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