Crimean Tatar woman held in Vladikavkaz for months over snubbing Russian citizenship

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets reported this on Telegram, according to Ukrinform.

"Russia, in viation of international law, is hding Crimean Tatar woman Lene Umerova hostage. On December 4 last year, Russian security forces detained Lene,25, after she crossed the Georgian-Russian border as she tried to return to the temporarily occupied Crimea to take care of her father who has cancer. She was accused of allegedly 'viating the immigration regime,'" Lubinets emphasized.

Umerova was placed in the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens in Vladikavkaz on the same day. Later, a Russian court found her guilty of "viating the regime of the state border" (part 1 of Article 18 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), imposing a RUB 2,000 fine. Since then, the administrative arrest has been extended several times.

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Umerova is currently being held in a temporary detention center in Vladikavkaz. She is systematically charged with far-fetched accusations of disobedience, the ombudsman noted.

"The pretext is actually different – the woman refused Russian citizenship during the forced passportization in the temporarily occupied Crimea," Lubinets explained.

He emphasized that, since the full-scale invasion, Russia has unprecedentedly intensified repression of Crimean Tatars, imprisoning them on trumped-up charges. Russians are trying to suppress resistance on the territory of the Ukrainian peninsula.

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According to the Commissioner, the international community should use all possible tos to increase pressure on Russia to release all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens as soon as possible.

As reported by Ukrinform, in April, a court in Rostov-on-Don extended the arrest of four Crimean Tatars from the "second Sevast Group" for three months – until July 23.