The highly-ranked Crimean Tatar official has been released from the psychiatric clinic. ‘I went through a forced forensic psychiatric evaluation. It was performed under the respective decision of the court. However, according to our data, the decision has not taken effect yet, so it’s a law breach, even by the Russian rules. We’ll be getting prepared for the next court hearings now. I didn’t take any sort of medications or food in here; I got the food brought from home, and the medicine was bought in the drug store. As for the expertise, it showed I’m mentally sane; however, somatic diseases remain, unfortunately’, Ilmi Umerov said in his interview with 112 Ukraine TV channel.
The Deputy Head of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatars marked the role of the Ukrainian media, especially 112 Ukraine TV channel, in the ongoing struggle for the rights of Crimean Tatars.
‘I thank 112 Ukraine TV channel for their part in the fate of the Crimean Tatar people. If many officials were as sensitive about our issues as your reporters are, problems would have been solved much faster’, he said.
In August 2016, the Russian court forcefully sent Umerov for psychiatric expertise. In May 2016, Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, charged him with the breach of Russia’s territorial integrity. The respective indictment says that in an interview with ATR TV channel, the Deputy Head of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatars stressed it’s necessary to return Donbas and Crimea under Ukraine’s jurisdiction. A FSB investigator took it as action against Russia’s territorial integrity.
Activists in Ukraine and abroad, as well as the OSCE, urge Russian authorities to release Umerov from further persecutions.
