If the thought of spending 17 years in the horrific conditions of a Russian prison is already intolerable, just think how bad it would be if you were totally blind and disabled. 41-year-old Crimean political prisoner Oleksandr Sizikov is facing just that as reprisal for his protests against Russian repression in occupied Crimea. He needs our voices in his defence.
Please sign the petition that activists have written demanding his release and circulate it further. Russia has demonstrated total contempt for international law and fundamental humanitarian principles up till now, however its imprisonment of Oleksandr Sizikov is in clear violation of its own legislation and publicity could just help at least get Oleksandr released as part of a prisoner exchange.
As reported, even the prison administration at the harsh-regime Minusinsk Prison in Siberia, as well as a Siberian court, acknowledged, back in May 2025, that Sizikov should be released. The order to release him was issued by the Minusinsk district court on 26 May on the application of Russia’s prison service and in full accordance with Russian legislation which has blindness on the list of conditions which preclude imprisonment. This had, in fact, been clear from the outset. Although it rapidly transpired that the Russian FSB were accusing a blind man of being ‘the organizer’ of a supposed Hizb ut-Tahrir group, Sizikov was one of very few Crimean political prisoners who were held under house arrest, not in detention. Later, even though presiding ‘judge’ Kirill Krivtsov, together with Alexei Magomadov and Sergei Yarosh, proved willing to convict Sizikov of preposterous charges and sentence him to 17 years, Krivtsov consistently rejected demands from prosecutor Sergei Aidinov to have Sizikov placed in a SIZO [remand prison]. He was only taken into custody after the Vlasikha military court of appeal upheld the shocking 17-year sentence on 29 May 2023.
The entirely correct ruling from the Minusinsk direct court, ordering Sizikov’s release was challenged by the Russian prosecutor. As is almost invariably the case, the Krasnoyarsk regional court understood and provided what was demanded of it. This ‘court’ revoked the 26 May ruling and ordered that Sizikov be rearrested In occupied Crimea and taken to the Siberian prison colony to serve the remainder of the 17-year sentence.
Crimean Solidarity reported on 26 January 2026 that Russia’s eighth cassation court of general jurisdiction had refused to examine the cassation appeal lodged by Sizikov’s lawyer. ‘Judge’ Oksana Lazareva issued the decision not to proceed on 16 January. She claimed there to be no grounds, although this was clearly not the case. Not only had the original ruling ordering Sizikov’s release been in accordance with the law, unlike that which revoked it, there were also grave flaws in the indictment, as well as clear proof of fabricated ‘evidence’.
Conveyor belt charges
Oleksandr Sizikov (b. 1984) was arrested on 7 July 2020, together with two young Crimean Tatars - Alim Sufianov (b. 1990) and Seiran Khairedinov (b. 1988). All three men are devout Muslims, who also took part in peaceful civic activism or, in Sizikov’s case, civic journalism, in defence of political prisoners and their families.
The men were all charged under Russia’s ‘terrorism’ legislation, although they were accused essentially only of having beliefs that Russia has outlawed and, almost certainly, targeted because of their civic stand. The FSB claimed that the men were involved in the peaceful transnational Hizb ut-Tahrir Muslim organization which is legal in Ukraine. Russia is using a flawed and secretive supreme court ruling from 2003 which claimed that Hizb ut-Tahrir is ‘terrorist’. The ruling has been superseded by Russia’s law on countering terrorism, yet is still used as a weapon, especially against civic journalists and activists from the Crimean Solidarity human rights initiative. ‘Guilty’ verdicts and long sentences are essentially guaranteed, with ‘judges’ from the Southern District Military Court in Rostov notorious for their active cooperation with the prosecution and total disregard for proven violations.
In all such ‘trials’, the FSB needs at least one person to face the more serious charge of ‘organizing’ a supposed Hizb ut-Tahrir group (Article 205.5 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code) as well as the equally surreal charge of planned to violently overthrow the regime (Article 278). The others are charged with ‘involvement’ in this alleged group (under Article 205.5 § 2) and Article 278. The only real difference seems to be in sentence, with those charged with Article 205.5 § 1 being imprisoned for 17 years or more.
Sizikov’s blindness had already sent shockwaves, with these only strengthened by the fact that the FSB were claiming that Sizikov was the ‘organizer’. Sizikov was accused of having been the organizer of a group which purportedly “carried out covert anti-constitutional activities through exerting influence on people’s religious feelings; organized and carried out meetings of the group, so-called ‘khalakaty’; looked for new participants and circulated the ideas”.
Fabricated ‘evidence’
The ‘evidence’ in these conveyor belt ‘trials’ is always flawed, with the indictment dating back to conversations from 2015, with these passed to FSB-friend ‘experts’ who provide the assessment demanded of them, and to ‘secret witnesses’ from 2015 whose testimony cannot be verified. The trial was one of very many in which the prosecution ‘recycled’ at least one notorious ‘secret witness’. This individual, Konstantin Tumarevich, is a Latvian fugitive from justice and had every reason to ‘cooperate’ with the FSB, including by providing whatever claims were demanded of him in numerous political trials against Muslims from Bakhchysarai.
Oleksandr converted to Islam in 2006, when he was 22. He was blinded and left disabled when a car hit his bike in 2009. Despite such disabilities, Sizikov held two solitary pickets (in April 2019 and May 2020) calling for the release of political prisoners and for an end to the repression against Crimean Muslims. Well-known lawyer Emil Kurbedinov suggested in October 2020 that his arrest was the FSB’s revenge for many occasions when Sizikov had expressed his outrage at the armed searches they were carrying out and the political trials underway. “There is no other way to explain the persecution of a totally blind person who has not committed any crime”.
It is deeply disturbing how politically compliant Russian courts are. On 17 May 2023, presiding ‘judge’ Kirill Krivtsov, together with Alexei Magomadov and Sergei Yarosh from the Southern District Military Court sentenced Sizikov to 17 years harsh-regime imprisonment, with the first four years in a prison, the absolute worst of all Russian penal institutions. Khairedinov and Sufianov were each sentenced to 12 years of harsh regime imprisonment, also with the first four years in a prison. This was upheld both by the military court of appeal in Vlasikha (Moscow region) and by ‘judge’ Oksana Lazareva on 16 January 2026.
PLEASE sign the petition at the link here and help to circulate it!
The petition states that total blindness is included in the list of illnesses precluding imprisonment, as per a resolution of the Russian government from 14 January 2011.
The authors – friends and others, concerned for his welfare, stress that Sizikov’s blindness has been ignored. They note also that Sizikov suffers also from hypertension which is being exacerbated in the prison colony, and has begun to have very strong headaches. He clearly nears constant assistance which he cannot possible receive in prison.
The petition is a demand for Oleksandr Sizikov’s immediate release (with the length only because it provides information about the original arrests, charges, etc.
It can be signed here: We demand the release of blind political prisoner Oleksandr Sizikov
