The Supreme Court of Crimea dismissed the appeal of human rights activist Riza Izetov. He had sought to challenge the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service's refusal to transfer him to a penal colony located near Crimea.

Lawyer Nazim Sheikhmambetov, representing Izetov, stated that the distance from Crimea to Yakutsk, where the Crimean Tatar previously served his sentence, is over nine thousand kilometers. This created insurmountable difficulties for his mother, who suffers from cancer and is unable to visit her son.

Riza Izetov is currently being held in Vladimir Prison. He was transferred there after his sentence conditions were tightened. Previously, Izetov was convicted of "malicious violation" three times in a Yakut penal colony and placed in solitary confinement, including for not wearing proper dress code and for falling asleep during a hypertension attack.

In 2022, Riza Izetov was sentenced to 19 years on charges of organizing the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is banned in Russia. However, it is legal in many countries.

Human rights activists have repeatedly stated that criminal cases brought in Crimea against Crimean Tatars under articles related to this party actually pursue a specific goal: suppressing peaceful political and religious activity, criticism of the authorities, and protests against repression.