MOSCOW, May 29 (RAPSI) - A criminal case has been opened in Crimea against Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar Majlis (parliament) for alleged calls for separatism, Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya reported Friday.

According to the Federal Security Service, Chubarov called for breaching Russia’s territorial integrity last April as he spoke on Ukrainian television.

A criminal case was opened against him for public calls for extremist activity via mass media, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Chubarov has been put on a wanted list, according to Poklonskaya.

Chubarov has been president of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars since 2009. In November 2013, he replaced Mustafa Dzhemilev as head of Crimean Tatar Majlis, an organization not registered under Russian law.

After Crimea reunited with Russia, both Dzhemilev and Chubarov were banned from entering the republic for five years. The regional officials claim that the Tatar leaders’ activity incited inter-ethnic hatred.

On May 15, Chubarov took an oath of office to become a people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. He had previously been a parliament member from 1998 to 2007.