Media: Turkey exchanged Crimean Tatar leaders Chiygoz and Umerov for two Russian agents
The Turkish government has exchanged Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy head of the Crimean Tatar people’s Mejlis, and Ilmi Umerov for two Russians accused of espionage, as announced on the Turkish TV channel Haberturk with reference to court documents.
The Russians Alexander Smirnov and Yury Anisimov were arrested in Turkey in April 2016. They were accused of planning the murder of Chechen dissidents and have been in custody until recently.
On October 25, the Russian authorities handed Umerov and Chiygoz over to Turkey. As reported, this was possible thanks to the agreements reached at the end of Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s visit to Ukraine.
Chiygoz was the primary defendant in the longest and most prominent criminal proceedings on the peninsula. As stated by official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin, Chiygoz was arrested “on suspicions of organizing and involvement in mass riots”. The events in question took place on February 26, 2014, when there was a protest outside the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol. Chiygoz was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment according to Sec. 1 Art. 212 of the Russian Criminal Code (RCC).
Umerov was accused of inciting separatism, because he said that Crimea should be Ukrainian. According to the investigation, in March 2016 Umerov spoke in a broadcast of the TV channel ATR. Then his recording was published on the Internet, after which he became a suspect according to Sec. 2 Art. 280.1 of the RCC (public calls to carry out actions directed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). He was sentenced to two years in a penal colony settlement.