Crimean Lenie Umerova, suspected of "espionage", brought back from Russian captivity

Following their detention in Russia, 49 soldiers and civilians were brought back to Ukraine. Crimean Tatar activist Lenie Umerova is one of them; in 2022, she was apprehended by the Russians as she was crossing the border with Georgia.

Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia gathered Lenie's letters and testimonies and retold the story of a woman who was freed from Russian law enforcement authorities after a two-year confinement on fabricated charges.

Details: Lenie Umerova is a Crimean native who relocated to Ukraine's mainland to pursue her education after the peninsula was annexed. She refused to obtain a Russian passport in Crimea.

Lenie then enrolled at the Ihor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where he studied chemical technologies. Later, she  joined the marketing team of a Ukrainian apparel manufacturer.

However, due to the deterioration of her cancer-stricken father's health, Lenie was forced to leave Kyiv for Russian-occupied Crimea in December 2022.

Quote: "In early November, dad began feeling considerable pain. Everything was fine for several years, with no problems, but now there were complications. The physicians said he needed surgery because the situation was serious.

I couldn’t not go, but I made the final decision at the last minute, I didn’t say anything to almost anyone. He was scheduled for surgery on 2 December, and on the morning of the fourth, after anaesthesia, I was supposed to come as a surprise," Lenie wrote in one of her letters from the pre-trial detention centre.

The most convenient route ran through Georgia, Lenie says: there was a direct minibus from Tbilisi to Simferopol.

"So, on 3 December, I stood at the Verkhnii Lars border crossing point. At first, everything went as usual: they checked documents and luggage, and Ukrainian citizens were instructed to turn in their phones for verification. Everything that followed was an endless awful dream, or, if you consider it from a philosophical standpoint, a test," she wrote.

Russian security forces detained Lenie as she crossed the border, purportedly for violating border regime norms.

Until 16 March, she was held in a temporary detention centre for foreigners near Vladikavkaz. The court found Umerova guilty of "violating the regime of the state border" and fined her RUB 2,000 (approx. US$21.9).

Lenie was freed on the night of 16 March, but at the gate, she was met with a car and four men. According to human rights campaigners, Lenie was apprehended, a bag was put on her head, and she was taken to an unfamiliar location of Vladikavkaz. A police patrol quickly detained her for "insubordination".

According to the Russian "court" ruling, Lenie was asked for her name, to which she presented a Ukrainian passport as well as a foreign passport. After that, the aforementioned individuals urged her to go to the police station to identify herself, saying that they are searching for individuals involved in the trafficking of narcotics.

When asked why she was being arrested, law enforcement officers drew up a second protocol, accusing her of violating police officers' orders. They claimed she "was too loud and refused to get into the car".

On 27 March, the "court" reissued the administrative arrest for "disobeying a police order". This time, the arrest was extended because Lenie failed to surrender the phone to the detention centre workers on time after speaking with her father.

Lenie Umerova's incarceration lasted until 9 April. However, on 11 April, the "court" issued a third administrative arrest for 15 days. This time, she was accused of refusing to exit the vehicle at the request of the police.

On 26 April, Umerova was again detained by the Vladikavkaz court for 15 days. Another administrative arrest was made because of Lenie’s "disobedience".

On 1 May, the FSB of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania confiscated her passports. The woman was then arrested by Moscow's Lefortovo court on accusations of espionage. Her case was swiftly classified.

Russian propagandists, citing the Russian Federation's FSB, said that the Ukrainian woman was suspected of transmitting "to the special services information about the deployment and tasks of Russian troops, particularly those who participated in the operation in Kyiv Oblast".

In June, her detention was prolonged for three months.

Lenie's brother said that his sister was even submitted to forensic mental assessment.

"Even now we do not understand what she is suspected of. Let me remind you that she is being kept in a solitary cell, the letters that she writes undergo a three-week check," he said.

The brother shared a video of Russian propagandists claiming that Lenie was detained for espionage and faces up to 20 years in prison. Umerova was not presented with any evidence of her wrongdoings.

Lenie's trial was scheduled for the autumn of 2024 in Moscow. However, she was released from Russian custody in September 2024, along with other military and civilian prisoners.

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