The authoritative Moscow Guild of Linguists has totally demolished an FSB-commissioned ’linguistic assessment’ used to back extraordinary ‘separatism’ charges against Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov. 60-year-old Umerov is facing a possible five-year sentence for supposed ‘public calls to action aimed at violating Russia’s territorial integrity’. The charges pertain to an interview in which Umerov indicated disagreement with Russia’s occupation of Crimea and spoke of international sanctions, with the FSB ‘expert’ detecting such public calls in a flawed translation of a language she does not understand.
The Guild of Linguists’ report was presented to the court at the last hearing on August 16. The defence’s application for it to be added to the case was entirely legitimate, but then so are all the applications in these political trials, and most get rejected. This time, despite the prosecutor’s objections, the judge allowed the report to be added. There seems less chance that the court will agree to a re-assessment, although the report makes it quite clear that one is required.
