Kyiv-based prosecutor’s office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC) and the city of Sevastopol, in the form of a special pretrial investigation, submitted to the court the indictment in the case of the former judge of Simferopol District Court, who illegally sentenced deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerov to imprisonment.
According to the press service of the prosecutor’s office, the accused after the occupation of the peninsula in 2014, having changed the oath of the judge, went to serve in the illegally created judicial authorities of the occupying state, taking the post of “a judge of Simferopol District Court of the Republic of Crimea.”
“The specified citizen of Ukraine, implementing the policy of the occupying state, which is aimed at persecuting the pro-Ukrainian population in Crimea, realizing that justice on the peninsula should be carried out in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, illegally guided by the legislation of the Russian Federation, sentenced the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to two years in prison,” the message says.
Thus, by his actions, the accused assisted a foreign state in carrying out subversive activities to the detriment of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. He is charged with Part 1 of Article 111 (high treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
As reported, on Sept. 27, 2017, the Simferopol District Court issued a verdict in the Umerov case and sentenced him to two years in a penal colony. On Oct. 25, Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz were transferred to Turkey, after which they should have arrived in Ukraine. They are exempt from criminal liability, but they are prohibited from living in Crimea.
On Oct. 26, the deputy chairmen of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people released from Russian imprisonment met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and thanked him for his efforts to release them, and also appealed to him to help other illegally persecuted, arrested and convicted in Crimea Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians, people of other nationalities.
