Russian-controlled Simferopol District Court on Wednesday sentenced deputy chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatars Ilmi Umerov, 60, to two years in a settlement colony for "calling for separatism and the violation of Russia's territorial integrity," according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service.
He was also barred from conducting public activity in the next two years, the media outlet reported.
The verdict was read out by Russian-appointed judge Andrey Kulishov. The prosecutor asked the court to give Umerov a suspended sentence of 3.5 years, while Umerov's four defense lawyers insisted on his acquittal. The lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.
A settlement colony is a penitentiary in which convicts usually live near a factory or farm where they are forced to work as the punishment.
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Investigators interpreted the interview the way that Umerov had publicly called for the return of Crimea to the jurisdiction of Ukraine.
When the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was under Ukraine's jurisdiction, Umerov was deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament in 2002-2005 and then headed Bakhchysarai district administration in 2005-2014.
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Commenting on the verdict on Umerov, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said it was shameful and called on the international community to toughen the pressure on Russian occupiers in Crimea.
"The shameful 'verdict' on Ilmi Umerov, an unbending hero of his people, who has faced Moscow's worst methods of the Soviet repressive machine – from punitive psychiatry to a colony settlement," he wrote on Facebook on September 27.