BREAKING!!!
A Ukrainian official says that Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were recently sentenced to prison terms by Russian courts, have been released from custody and were headed for Turkey. (Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
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The Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has more on the reported release of two Crimean Tatar leaders:
Crimean Tatar Leaders Umerov And Chiygoz Said To Have Been Released, Headed For Turkey
Ukrainian authorities say Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were recently sentenced to prison terms by Russian courts, have been released from custody and are headed for Turkey.
Umerov and Chiygoz, who had been held in Russian-controlled Crimea, were released on October 25, Ukrainian First Deputy Information Policy Minister Emine Dzhappar told RFE/RL.
She said they were "handed" to Turkey.
Mustafa Dzhemilev, the veteran Crimean Tatar leader who is now a Ukraniain lawmaker, also told RFE/RL that Chiygoz and Umerov were headed for Turkey.
"Two more hostages -- two political prisoners -- have obtained freedom," lawyer Nikolai Polozov said on Facebook.
Mark Feygin, a lawyer who has represented Umerov, said on Twitter that the Crimean Tatar leader was "flying to Ankara. He is saved."
Chiygoz was convicted of organizing an illegal demonstration and sentenced to eight years in prison on September 11 after what Amnesty International called a "sham trial."
Umerov was convicted of separatism on September 27 and sentenced to two years in a colony settlement, a penitentiary in which convicts usually live near a factory or farm where they are forced to work.
Rights groups and Western governments have condemned their convictions, calling them part of a campaign of pressure and abuse conducted by Russia since it occupied and seized control of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
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