The presidential administration refused to provide details of the release of the deputy chairman of the Mejlis

The presidential administration refused to inform lawyer Edem Semedlyaev on the basis of which decree the deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerov, who was convicted on charges of inciting separatism, was taken out of Crimea. Umerov himself wrote about this on Facebook.

In October, he and another leader of the Crimean Tatar national movement, Akhtem Chiygoz, were released by presidential decree. After that, they were taken to Turkey.

“On Friday, we received the following response from the Putin administration addressed to a lawyer who submitted a request to familiarize us with the presidential decree on my ‘release’. Unfortunately, nothing has been clarified. I still don’t know on what basis I was “released”, or “forgiven”, or “rehabilitated”, or “exchanged”, or “pardoned” ... We do not know if this “decree” even exists. Maybe not at all, but I'm on the run? And if he does exist, why wasn't he introduced to me? Why were me and Akhtem Chiygoz fraudulently, without informing them, taken by a special plane (by plane) to Ankara and handed over to the Turkish special services? Moreover, they organized it as a top-secret special operation. Why didn't they leave us at home, in the Crimea? Does this mean that I will not be able to visit Crimea? If I can't, on what basis? Umerov wrote.

On September 27, the court found Umerov guilty of inciting to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to two years in a colony-settlement.

On September 11, the Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, to eight years in a penal colony, finding him guilty of organizing riots in Simferopol on February 26, 2014. He has been under arrest since January 29, 2015.