A blind Muslim from Crimea, Alexander Sizikov, who was sentenced to 17 years, was transported to a prison in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai. He has a Group I disability due to vision impairment. The man was blinded in a traffic accident in 2009.
After the arrest of the Crimean Tatar, his lawyers sought to have him examined and released. However, their attempts were unsuccessful.
Alexander Sizikov was found guilty of having ties to the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in the Russian Federation. He had been in pretrial detention 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.
