The Minusinsk Court has released 39-year-old Crimean political prisoner Oleksandr Sizikov — a Muslim and a Group I visually impaired person. He spent over eight months in detention. The news was reported by Crimean Tatar human rights defender Mumine Saliieva.
Oleksandr Sizikov lost his eyesight completely following a car accident. On July 7, 2020, he was detained during mass searches in occupied Crimea along with six other Crimean Tatars, accused of alleged involvement in the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir. The occupation administration planted Islamic literature on him as “evidence of extremist activity.” The six others were sent to the Simferopol detention center, while Oleksandr was placed under house arrest.
Despite his limitations, he remained an active participant in civic life — attending court hearings, supporting the families of political prisoners, and holding solo pickets in protest against the arbitrariness of the occupation administration.
On May 17, 2023, a Russian “court” in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 17 years in a high-security penal colony.
On September 14, 2024, an appellate “court” upheld the sentence without changes. The following day, officers of the occupation administration took Oleksandr from his home and transferred him to an undisclosed location. He was initially placed in a temporary detention facility in Bakhchysarai and later moved to Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol. The occupiers refused to accept warm clothing that Oleksandr’s mother, Olena Sizikova, had sent by parcel. Only later was she allowed to deliver clothing in person.
Two days after his placement in the detention center, his lawyer, Safiie Shabanova, filed a motion to halt his transfer to a penal colony in the Russian Federation. The motion cited Oleksandr’s diagnosis as one of the medical conditions officially recognized as incompatible with serving a prison sentence. Despite this, the court refused to release him on health grounds.
After spending three months in a cell measuring just eight square meters, on December 9, 2024, Oleksandr Sizikov was unlawfully transferred to Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai — over 4,000 kilometers from Crimea.
The occupation administration in Crimea systematically persecutes activists, human rights defenders, and the Muslim community through repression, unlawful arrests, torture, and intimidation. Despite the crackdown, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians, and activists continue their resistance — documenting crimes and holding on to their belief in justice. Every Russian crime is remembered.