A blind Muslim from Crimea, Alexander Sizikov, was sent to one of the prisons in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. There are two prisons in the region: the first is in Minusinsk, the second is in Yeniseisk. It is not yet known where exactly the political prisoner will serve his sentence.
After the man was placed in a pre-trial detention center, his lawyers sought to have him examined and released. However, their attempts were unsuccessful. The Crimean has a Group I disability due to his vision: he was completely blinded as a result of a traffic accident.
Alexander Sizikov was accused of having ties to the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as terrorist in Russia, but operates legally and freely in many countries around the world, including Ukraine. The defendant had been in a pre-trial detention center and under house arrest since July 2020. In May 2023, the Southern District Military Court sentenced Sizikov to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony. According to human rights activists, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir are being persecuted not for preparing a coup d'etat or terrorism, but for criticizing the Russian authorities.
