The Minusynsk city court of the Krasnoyarsk region freed Oleksandr SIZIKOV, visually impaired political prisoner due to his illness (Article 81 of the Criminal Code of the RF, para.6 of the Article 397 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the RF).
«The judge has just announced the decision. Oleksandr SIZIKOV is freed. He will fly home, via Sochi, from the region of Krasnoyarsk. The prison is to pay his tickets, his mother will be meeting him”, – Lutfiye ZUDIYEVA, the activist, cites the lawyer who represented interests of O. SIZIKOV in the court.
The information on the hearing was posted on the court’s official website in advance, but the details of the case were classified. According to the lawyers, it was about Oleksandr SIZIKOV, the Crimean political prisoner, apprehended in July 2020 in Crimea. For the time being he is in the prison of Minusynsk, this is more than 5000 km from his home in the region of Bakhchisaray in Crimea.
As Olena SIZIKOVA, the mother of the convict, states, the case-file arrived to the court on 4 April 2025, after her son had been transported to the hospital of the region of Krasnoyarsk for the medical examination. The request to get Oleksandr released was to be considered on 19 May, but the prosecutor applied for the doctor to attend the hearing.
The defence lawyers insisted on his release due to his serious diagnosis – Oleksandr SIZIKOV completely lost his eyesight and needed special care: he could read only in Braille and used a cane to get around.
Earlier, on 9 December 2024, as L.ZUDIYEVA states, despite the protests by the lawyer, Safiye SHABANOVA, and her claims to suspend the transportation due to the medical indications, SIZIKOV was transported from Crimea to the colony of the region of Krasnoyarsk. Prior to the delivery of the decision by the court of appeal SIZIKOV had been under the house arrest for three years.
The defence lawyers maintained that SIZIKOV’s disease was on the list of diseases preventing from serving the sentence as approved by the Government of the RF.The lawyer lodged the relevant application addressed to Vadim BULGAKOV, the head of the Department of Federal Penitentiary Service of Crimea, seeking to have the medical commission appointed and requesting him to apply to the court with a motion to get O.SIZIKOV freed. However, back then the head of the Department of Federal Penitentiary Service of Crimea informed that it was beyond his competence to lodge a relevant motion as O.SIZIKOV, as this official stated, was temporarily on the territory of Crimea.
Here we remind that
- On 7 July 2020 the officers of the russian FSB apprehended O.SIZIKOV in the village of Sevastyanivka of Bakhchisaray district of Crimea. In line with the charge under the part.1 of the Article 205.5. of the Criminal Code of the RF, the visually impaired SIZIKOV allegedly organized the terrorist group. After that SIZIKOV was in home custody: this preventive measure, which did not entail the detention in custody, was the achievement of SIZIKOV’s lawyers as his disease was not compatible with the detention within the pre-trial detention centre.
- On 17 May 2023 the Pivdennyi district military court in Rostov-na-Donu announced the verdict to the defendants of “the Crimean Muslims case” – O.SIZIKOV, A. SUFYANOV, and S. KHAIREDINOV.
- O. SIZIKOV, visually impaired disabled person (I group), was sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment, first 4 years were to be spent in prison. The court ruled to place him to the penitentiary colony of the strict regime and once released – Oleksandr’ s liberty was to be restricted for 1,5 year – he was to be prohibited to attend the public events and gatherings.
- The Ukrainian human rights defenders urged that the imprisonment of the visually impaired O.SIZIKOV threatened seriously his health and life. These risks are aggravated by systematic failure to provide due medical aid to the imprisoned and by other forms of harsh and inhuman treatment by the administration of the russian penitentiaries.
