“Mum, I don’t want to go back there…”: blind political prisoner Sizikov was released from a penal colony on health grounds, but then the decision was overturned

The case of Crimean political prisoner Oleksandr Sizikov is one of the most cynical cases of persecution by the Russian occupying authorities. The man has a group I disability – after an accident in 2009, he completely lost his sight and requires constant assistance from others. Despite this, the occupying authorities in Crimea accused him of terrorism and sentenced him to 17 years’ imprisonment, in fact, only for peaceful protests against repression.

Oleksandr Sizikov was born in 1984 in Simferopol, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and later moved with his family to the village of Turhenievka in the Bakhchysarai District. In 2002, he enrolled at Sevastopol National Technical University, majoring in Automation and Computer-Integrated Technologies. In 2006, he converted to Islam. After an accident and the loss of his sight, his fellow villagers and Imam Edem Smailov helped him in his daily life until the FSB detained the imam and accused him of terrorism.

Sizikov could not come to terms with the imam’s arrest, so with the help of two pensioners, he staged solo protests in April 2019, May 2020, and attended court proceedings against arrested Muslims.

Oleksandr was detained on July 7, 2020, after searches were conducted at his friends’ homes. The FSB accused Sizikov of “establishing a terrorist cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2015”. As evidence, the Russian special service pointed to books belonging to the religious-political association that were found during the search which were not even printed in Braille.

The trial lasted almost three years; throughout this period, Oleksandr remained under house arrest, since even according to Russian law, his health condition did not allow him to be held in a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). However, in May 2023, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Oleksandr Sizikov to 17 years’ imprisonment. His defence called the decision not only cruel but also illegal, as Sizikov, who is blind and has a group I disabilityі , could not serve his sentence in prison. However, the Military Court of Appeal of the Russian Federation ignored this circumstance, and the man was transferred from Crimea to Minusinsk in the Krasnoyarsk Krai of the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities transfer political prisoners from the occupied territory of Crimea to this colony, known for its harsh conditions, including such well-known public figures, political prisoners as Nariman Dzhelyal and Osman Arifmemetov.

Oleksandr went through a difficult period, and his condition worsened. While in prison, Sizikov was sent to a hospital in Krasnoyarsk, where he was diagnosed with stage III hypertension and confirmed complete loss of vision, which is included in the list of diseases that, according to Russian law, prevent prisoners from serving their sentences in colonies. Therefore, in May 2025, the Minusinsk City Court ruled to release Sizikov from punishment due to his health condition.

Oleksandr was happy to return home; he was recovering and making plans for the future. But on 21 October 2025, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court overturned the decision to release Sizikov and ruled that he should be returned to prison.

Oleksandr’s mother, Olena Sizikova, spoke about what he had to endure in the colony, how he adapted to life at home after prison, and the circumstances of his new detention.

Oleksandr Sizikov

According to his mother, when Oleksandr returned home, he was in a state of euphoria, making lots of plans and getting involved in household chores. However, it took him an entire month to adapt to life in freedom.

For a long time after wearing prison shoes, his feet hurt, so at home he was happy to walk barefoot.

He had difficulties orienting himself within the house, and his body struggled to accept home-cooked food; for a considerable time, he suffered from digestive disorders.

“But he was still happy, walking around cheerfully and even wanted to go to a chess competition”, his mother recalls.

But on 22 October 2025, when the family was getting ready for bed, police officers climbed over the fence and broke into the house:

“The lights in the house were off, and I heard movement in the yard. I went outside and saw about 20 thugs standing in my yard. Among them was an FSB officer named Tamerlan. A few days before the arrest, he had given Oleksandr a lift home from the mosque in his car […].“

She believes that all of this was planned. During the trip, Tamerlan tried to provoke Oleksandr. He said, “On Wednesday, we detained four Muslim women. What do you think about that?” Oleksandr responded angrily. The FSB agent also told Oleksandr that he was a kafir (an Islamic term for a person who does not believe in Allah – Ed.).

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It later turned out that this same Tamerlan was in charge during Oleksandr’s detention at home, his mother says.

Then the FSB officers gave Olena Sizikova a piece of paper without a stamp, on which investigator Lukianchenko reported that a cache of explosives and ammunition had been found somewhere in the forest, and that the investigator suspected that Oleksandr was involved.

“I said, “This is nonsense, you want to arrest Oleksandr on new charges?” They replied that, based on this document, they had to conduct a search and that Oleksandr would simply be taken in for questioning as a suspect. Even though there were no sanctions or search warrants. Can you imagine, these 20 thugs are in our house with a fake piece of paper… I told them, “If you haven’t brought any ammunition with you to plant in our house, then everything will be fine”, Olena recalls.

At 1 a.m., after the FSB officers and the witnesses they had brought with them had conducted a search, Oleksandr was taken to the temporary detention centre in Bakhchysarai. The next day, he was brought from the temporary detention centre to court and sentenced to 10 days’ imprisonment for allegedly resisting the authorities.

“You see, according to their version, a blind person was fighting with the police officers…“, Olena says indignantly.

While she and the lawyer were travelling to Simferopol to bring back the original documents, the investigator had already fabricated another case. On the same day, Oleksandr was taken to the Bakhchysarai hospital, where he was examined by “an ophthalmologist, a therapist, and another doctor”, who concluded that Sizikov could be held in detention for 10 days. On the basis of this conclusion, he was transferred to the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre.

“They didn’t even want to take him there, but according to Oleksandr, the FSB officer called them, and they immediately processed him… Even though his warm clothes, medicines, food, and hygiene products were all left at the Bakhchysarai temporary detention centre. I then spent two days walking around, collecting these things from there“, the political prisoner’s mother says.

According to her, Oleksandr had a disability certificate with him, but the local police officer, Zaitsev Sergei Sergeevich, simply stole it.

Oleksandr’s lawyer also found out that Elena Yesina, a “judge” at the illegitimate “Bakhchysarai court”, had not processed Sizikov’s complaint about the impossibility of being held in detention due to his disability for three days and had not sent it to Simferopol. But then Oleksandr was quickly transferred from the Bakhchysarai temporary detention centre to the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre. This was because, according to the law, he should have been released.

The mother asked: “Why were the lawyer and I not notified? Why was a social worker not called?” However, the “police” provided no substantive response to these questions.

At the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre, Oleksandr was held in a special blockі . There, he had to wait to be transferred to the same camp in Minusinsk.

His mother could only communicate with Oleksandr by sending letters via Zonatelekom. Although Oleksandr had a phone with a SIM card, the prison administration did not allow him to make calls.

“Officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) told me in conversation that he is under a special regime and is not allowed either phone calls or parcels. During all this time, I had only one brief visit with him“, she complains.

According to his mother, he was held in complete isolation in a pre-trial detention centre, and she could not even give him warm clothes before he was transferred to Siberia.

Her son also managed to tell her that when he was brought from the Bakhchysarai temporary detention centre to the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre at night, and he started to get out of the prison transport, the guards started shouting: “Attention! We’re releasing the Kraken!” while laughing.

“Can you believe what it’s like for a blind person to endure all this abuse?” the mother exclaims indignantly.

Olena is deeply worried that Oleksandr will once again have to face cruel treatment in the colony.

After all, when he was in Minusinsk, despite his disability and blindness, no concessions were made to him in terms of the prison regime. He walked with his group in the colony to the canteen, was forced to stand for all prison roll calls, and had to do morning exercises with everyone else. This is despite the fact that he has stage III hypertension and suffers from constant headaches.

In the colony, some inmates also mocked Oleksandr: supposedly as a joke, they would crumble biscuits into his plate, and at times, when he was walking along the corridor, strike him in the face with a twisted towel. However, above all, he felt pressure from the colony administration.

There were occasions when colony staff threatened that they would first ruin his health and then make him “a punk.”і  In other words, they threatened to transfer him to a cell where he would be raped.

At the same time, almost all prisoners in the Minusinsk colony had health problems, especially Ukrainian political prisoners. They were not provided with adequate medical care. Oleksandr has stage III hypertension, which, if left untreated, can lead to a stroke. Meanwhile, Sizikov was only prescribed a diet appropriate for his health at the end of his previous stay in the colony.

He also has a titanium plate in his head after the accident, so he must always wear a hat. Temperature changes are very dangerous for Oleksandr, as they cause him severe headaches, so he must always have his medication with him.

His mother says that in prison, Oleksandr tried to defend his rights in accordance with internal regulations and other instructions, though not always successfully.

“I want to say that Oleksandr is holding on morally, he’s not giving up, he’s doing well! But at the same time, he tells me: “Mum, I don’t want to go back there“, Olena says.

Despite efforts by his relatives and lawyer to prevent the Crimean man from being re-imprisoned, on December 1, 2025, Oleksandr was taken from the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre to the Minusinsk penal colony in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, a transfer that last time took more than two months. Information about his transfer arrives with a significant delay.

As of December 25, 2025, Sizikov was in Volgograd, Russia. Oleksandr’s relatives and friends are currently submitting appeals to the law enforcement, judicial, and penitentiary authorities of the Russian Federation, as well as to the Human Rights Commissioner, demanding his immediate release or the replacement of his sentence with a measure not involving deprivation of liberty and that further detention poses a serious risk to his life.