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Court arrests native of Crimea on charges of treason

If found guilty, Leniye Umerova could face up to 20 years in prison

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. Moscow's Lefortovo Court has arrested Leniye Umerova, a native of Crimea, on charges of high treason, the court told TASS on Friday.

"The court approved a motion by the Federal Security Service (FSB) investigator handling the case and placed Leniye Umerova under arrest, charging her under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘High Treason’)," the court said, declining to comment further as the case materials are classified.

If found guilty, Umerova could face up to 20 years in prison.

According to the available information, Umerova is a native of Crimea and relocated to Kiev in 2015. In December 2022, she decided to travel to the peninsula to visit her father. While en route, traveling by bus from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Simferopol, Crimea, Umerova was detained by Russian border guards at the Upper Lars checkpoint and taken to Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania Region. The woman was found guilty of violating the rules for crossing the Russian border and spent the next three months in detention at the Center for Temporary Detention of Foreigners. After Umerova was released from the center, she was again detained and brought to Moscow on charges of high treason.

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