A court in Russia-annexed Crimea has ruled that a noted Crimean Tatar activist, Ilmi Umerov, must be placed in a psychiatric clinic for examination.

The Kyiv District Court in Simferopol on August 11 approved the motion by investigators. Umerov's lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, said that the court's ruling will be appealed.

Umerov, 59, former deputy chairman of Crimean Tatars' self-governing body -- the Mejlis -- was charged with separatism in May after he made public statements against the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea by Russia.

Umerov was allowed to stay home during investigations into his case.

The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center has called the case against Umerov "illegal and politically motivated."

The majority of Crimea's indigenous people, Crimean Tatars, opposed the peninsula’s annexation by Moscow in March 2014.

Based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax