International rights groups and Ukrainian officials protested Friday against the incarceration in a psychiatric hospital of a prominent Crimean Tatar activist charged with calling for extremism in the Russian-annexed peninsula.
Ilmi Umerov, 59, has been held in a psychiatric hospital in the main Crimean city of Simferopol since August 18 undergoing forced sanity testing that could last at least 28 days.
Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the Russian authorities in Crimea to release Umerov, drop the charges and ensure he receives necessary medical care.
Umerov himself told AFP by phone from inside the hospital: "Just the fact of my being here in a psychiatric hospital is one long act of torture."
"I feel... like a free man in a cage."
In May, Russia charged Umerov with calling for breaches of Russia's territorial integrity on Crimean Tatar television channel ATR. He faces up to five years in jail.
Since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian authorities have cracked down on the Muslim Crimean Tatars who largely opposed the takeover of the peninsula and were persecuted under Stalin.
Earlier this month, Umerov was forcibly moved from an ordinary hospital where he was receiving treatment for a suspected heart attack. He also suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and Parkinson's.
"His life remains in danger," his lawyer Nikolai Polozov told AFP, saying his client was suffering from spikes in blood pressure.
"The fact that they are holding him (in hospital) is undoubtedly an element of pressure on him."
Umerov said he felt "constant weakness" but vowed he would "hold out (for) the 28 days that they have locked me up here."
The hospital where Umerov is being held has no heart specialists and "if something happens to him, the emergency care won't come in time," Polozov said.
"Our family's very worried about his state of health," Umerov's son Suleiman told AFP.
"He's very weak."
Polozov said that from a mental perspective, Umerov was mentally "totally healthy" and that he should have had the right to refuse psychiatric testing.
- 'Punitive psychiatry' -
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin compared Umerov's detention to the Soviet-era practice of holding dissidents in psychiatric hospitals.
"Punitive psychiatry is a return to the terrible times of the NKVD," Klimkin wrote on Twitter, referring to the secret police under Stalin.
He and other supporters of Umerov posted the hashtag #StopKillingIlmiUmerov.
A group of Crimean Tatar activists and government officials held a protest at Kiev's Independence Square carrying a banner reading: "Free Ilmi Umerov," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Twitter.
Umerov was a longtime head of the peninsula's Bakhchysaray district, resigning when it moved under Moscow's control.
He was also the deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatars' elected governing body, the Mejlis, which the Russian authorities banned as extremist in April.
First deputy head of the Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal told AFP: "I suspect that he -- a completely clear-thinking and mentally healthy person -- will finally be pronounced insane in order to discredit him as a personality and the body that he represents."
International rights groups and Ukrainian officials protested Friday against the incarceration in a psychiatric hospital of a prominent Crimean Tatar activist charged with calling for extremism in the Russian-annexed peninsula.
Ilmi Umerov, 59, has been held in a psychiatric hospital in the main Crimean city of Simferopol since August 18 undergoing forced sanity testing that could last at least 28 days.
Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the Russian authorities in Crimea to release Umerov, drop the charges and ensure he receives necessary medical care.
Umerov himself told AFP by phone from inside the hospital: “Just the fact of my being here in a psychiatric hospital is one long act of torture.”
“I feel… like a free man in a cage.”
In May, Russia charged Umerov with calling for breaches of Russia’s territorial integrity on Crimean Tatar television channel ATR. He faces up to five years in jail.
Since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian authorities have cracked down on the Muslim Crimean Tatars who largely opposed the takeover of the peninsula and were persecuted under Stalin.
Earlier this month, Umerov was forcibly moved from an ordinary hospital where he was receiving treatment for a suspected heart attack. He also suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and Parkinson’s.
“His life remains in danger,” his lawyer Nikolai Polozov told AFP, saying his client was suffering from spikes in blood pressure.
“The fact that they are holding him (in hospital) is undoubtedly an element of pressure on him.”
Umerov said he felt “constant weakness” but vowed he would “hold out (for) the 28 days that they have locked me up here.”
The hospital where Umerov is being held has no heart specialists and “if something happens to him, the emergency care won’t come in time,” Polozov said.
“Our family’s very worried about his state of health,” Umerov’s son Suleiman told AFP.
“He’s very weak.”
Polozov said that from a mental perspective, Umerov was mentally “totally healthy” and that he should have had the right to refuse psychiatric testing.
– ‘Punitive psychiatry’ –
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin compared Umerov’s detention to the Soviet-era practice of holding dissidents in psychiatric hospitals.
“Punitive psychiatry is a return to the terrible times of the NKVD,” Klimkin wrote on Twitter, referring to the secret police under Stalin.
He and other supporters of Umerov posted the hashtag #StopKillingIlmiUmerov.
A group of Crimean Tatar activists and government officials held a protest at Kiev’s Independence Square carrying a banner reading: “Free Ilmi Umerov,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Twitter.
Umerov was a longtime head of the peninsula’s Bakhchysaray district, resigning when it moved under Moscow’s control.
He was also the deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatars’ elected governing body, the Mejlis, which the Russian authorities banned as extremist in April.
First deputy head of the Mejlis Nariman Dzhelyal told AFP: “I suspect that he — a completely clear-thinking and mentally healthy person — will finally be pronounced insane in order to discredit him as a personality and the body that he represents.”
