Where is Leniye Umerova?

A 24-year-old Crimean Tatar woman was kidnapped and has been illegally held captive by Russian security forces for five months

Leniye Umerova lived in Kyiv and worked as a marketer for a well-known Ukrainian brand of women's clothing. The girl moved to the capital in 2015, due to the Russian occupation of Crimea. She graduated from school, entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and worked successfully. But at the beginning of December last year, Leniye had to go back to Crimea to take care of her father. Cancer patient Rezvan Umerov was preparing for a complex operation. However, it was not possible for the daughter to meet her father. The way from Kyiv to Crimea lay for Leniye through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Georgia. At the "Verkhniy Lars" checkpoint - the border between Georgia and Russia, the girl was detained by the border guards "to additionally check the citizen of Ukraine". After the so-called verification of documents and all personal data on her phone, the FSB officers informed Leniye that they had to talk to her, but postponed the interview until the morning, sending the girl to the "Sova" hotel by taxi. The traffic police stopped the expensive car and said: foreigners do not have the right to be on this road without a special permit. The security forces drew up an administrative report and sent the case to court. The judges held a meeting at night (!) and sent the girl to the Center for Temporary Detention of Foreign Citizens - allegedly for violating the rules of crossing the state border of the Russian Federation. This was told to UA:SOUTH by Leniye's brother, Aziz Umerov.

The court's decision states that the citizen of Ukraine was moving through village streets, not federal highways, and thus "violated the regime of staying in the zone for foreign citizens with regulated visits by foreign citizens without special permission," writes the "Grata" publication.

Until March 13, Leniye Umerova was in the Center for Foreigners in North Ossetia near the city of Vladivkavkaz. The local district court found the girl guilty of "violating the state border of the Russian Federation".

According to the girl's brother, the court file refers to the request to deport Leniye outside the Russian Federation, but due to the lack of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Russia, the deportation was refused.

On the night of March 14, Leniye Umerova was released from the Center, but a bus with 4 unknown men was waiting for her at the gate of the building. They put a bag over the girl's head and took her to the city of Pyatihirsk, where she was charged with allegedly disobeying police officers. The next day, the Pyatigorsk Court sentenced Leniye to 15 days of arrest and sent her to the detention center. Already there, a protocol was drawn up on Umerova for disobedience to the security forces and another court session was scheduled. On March 27, she was sentenced to another 15 days of arrest. Leniye was transferred to another detention center, in the city of Beslan. And on April 9, she was again accused of disobeying the security forces and sentenced to another 15 days of arrest.

Leniye's seriously ill father, Rezvan Umerov, was forced to go to North Ossetia, where he has been waiting for his daughter's release for 2 months.

The girl's brother, Aziz Umerov, is sure that the only reason for his sister's illegal detention by the Russians is her refusal to obtain a Russian passport and her unwillingness to live in occupied Crimea.

The Mission of the President of Ukraine in Crimea also believes that the reason for the illegal detention of the Crimean Tatar woman is the refusal of her Russian passport.

"We demand that the Russian Federation immediately release the citizen of Ukraine, a representative of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, Leniye Umerova, and stop the criminal prosecution. We call on the international community to react and condemn the brazen violation of international humanitarian law. We draw the attention of law enforcement agencies and the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of a resident of the temporarily occupied peninsula." - says the official statement of the Mission.