A year ago, on December 4, Russian security forces detained Leniie Umerova after crossing the Georgian-Russian border, allegedly for violating the rules of the security zone and for the lack of Russian documents. The girl was traveling from Kyiv to occupied Crimea due to the deterioration of her father’s health.
Until March 16, Leniie was held in the Temporary Detention Center for Foreign Citizens near Vladikavkaz. The occupiers found the girl guilty of violating the state border regime (Part 1 of Article 18 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) and fined her 2 thousand rubles. After this, she was repeatedly assigned new administrative arrests under various pretexts, in particular, allegedly because of disobedience to law enforcement officers. At this time, Leniie’s passport as a citizen of Ukraine was taken away.
On May 4, the parents tried to visit Leniie in the pre-trial detention center, but they were not allowed in, saying that she was no longer there. They physically visited various Russian services and looked for her. As a result, it became known that Lenya was already in Moscow at Lefortovo. On May 5, the Lefortovo court in Moscow arrested the girl for 2 months on suspicion of high treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code). Subsequently, the period of detention was repeatedly extended.
As it turned out, the occupiers kept the girl under the pretext of administrative arrests in order to prepare a criminal case against Ukrainian citizen Leniie Umerova.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center expresses a strong protest against the arbitrariness of the occupiers and declares that such actions of the occupiers are illegal, politically motivated and criminal. By such actions, the Russian authorities violate the provisions of the Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center demands the immediate release of Leniie Umerova and other political prisoners of the Kremlin.