Judge Rizvan Yusupov of Tatarstan's Supreme Court, who upheld the extension of the pretrial arrest of RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in June, may lose his position after he confirmed reports that his children have U.S. citizenship.
Yusupov confirmed to the Regnum news agency on August 30 that his children are dual Russian-American citizens, hours after the Mash Telegram channel, which is close to Russia's law enforcement structures, said the judge hid the information about his daughter and son, who were born in the United States after his wife traveled there to give birth.
SEE ALSO: Long Showers. Clean Drinking Water. Long Hugs. Avocados: Alsu Kurmasheva Adjusts To Freedom After Russian PrisonThe couple reportedly claimed that the births were home deliveries in Kazan and then arranged for their citizenships through the U.S. Consulate, without informing Russian authorities.
Yusupov confirmed that a probe has been launched into his children's U.S. passports but insisted that he had provided Russian authorities with information about the dual citizenships.
"A criminal case was launched against [Yusupov's] wife, Elvira, and her 19-year-old son Gayaz on a charge of hiding the information about another country's passport. It is known that the judge's elder daughter Nailya resides in the Netherlands," Mash reported.
Kurmasheva, a dual Russian-U.S. citizen who was released in early August in a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West, was detained in June last year while waiting for her return flight to Prague from Kazan. Authorities confiscated both of her passports and her phone. She was released but barred from leaving the country.
After five months of waiting for a decision in her case, Kurmasheva was fined 10,000 rubles ($109) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.
Unable to leave Russia without her travel documents, Kurmasheva in October was arrested, jailed, and charged with being an undeclared "foreign agent." Two months later, she was charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military.
In July, a court in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan, sentenced Kurmasheva to 6 1/2 years in prison.
On August 1, she was released along with two other U.S. citizens -- Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.