Statement of human rights organizations regarding the illegal imprisonment of the blind Oleksandr Sizikov in the occupied Crimea

On September 14, 2024, Russian police officers took into custody Oleksandr Sizikov, a blind resident of Crimea, who is being illegally persecuted by the occupation administration under the criminal article of involvement in a terrorist organization.

Oleksandr Sizikov is one of 117 Crimean Muslims who were persecuted by the occupation authorities for their alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir (an Islamic political party that operates legally in Ukraine and most countries of the world, but is recognized as a terrorist organization by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2003). In 2009, Sizikov was involved in a traffic accident, as a result of which he received numerous injuries and became completely blind. Sizikov was assigned a group I disability.

In addition to the difficulties associated with adapting to life without sight, Oleksandr Sizikov also fought for the rights of the repressed in the occupied Crimea. In particular, he visited places of searches and court hearings in politically motivated criminal cases and went on solitary pickets in support of Edem Smailov, his guardian and head of the religious community, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for allegedly participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.

On July 7, 2020, another wave of arbitrary searches took place in the homes of Muslims in Crimea, after which 6 people were taken into custody, and Oleksandr Sizikov was placed under house arrest due to disability. On May 17, 2023, the Southern District Military Court (Rostov-on-Don, Russia) sentenced Seyran Hayredinov and Alim Sufyanov to 12 years of imprisonment, blind Oleksandr Syzikov to 17 years of imprisonment (judge Kyrylo Kryvtsov). On September 13, 2024, the Appeal Military Court (Vlasikha, Moscow Region, Russia) upheld the sentence of all three Ukrainian citizens and ordered Sizikov to be taken into custody (Judge Maksym Panin). The very next day, Russian policemen came to Sizikov’s house to arrest him, threatening the use of force and responsibility in case of “failure to comply with the legal requirements of police officers.”

The imprisonment and sentencing of Seyran Hairedinov, Alim Sufyanov and Oleksandr Sizikov is characterized by numerous violations of the norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In addition to the illegal application of Russian criminal legislation on the territory of Crimea, there are many signs that point to the falsification of a criminal case: banned literature, editing of an audio recording, witnesses from among Russian military personnel, contradictory statements of witnesses.

According to the resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation – PP of the Russian Federation No. 54 of February 6, 2004 “On the medical examination of convicts submitted for release from serving a sentence due to illness”, diseases accompanied by complete blindness are included in such a list for release. Even according to Russian legislation, Oleksandr Sizikov should not have been placed to serve his sentence in any of the institutions of the penitentiary system. Despite this, on September 13, the Military Court of Appeal of the Russian Federation recognized Oleksandr Sizikov as a person who can serve a sentence in a correctional institution.

Imprisonment of the blind Oleksandr Sizikov poses a real threat to his health and life. These risks are exacerbated by the systematic failure to provide the necessary medical care to prisoners and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment by the administrations of Russian penitentiary institutions. Already in February 2023, two illegally imprisoned citizens of Ukraine — Kostyantyn Shyring and Dzhemil Hafarov — died in Russian prisons as a result of systematic ignoring of health problems. Currently, about 40 illegally imprisoned seriously ill residents of Crimea are in danger, including Amet Suleymanov, Iryna Danylovych, Tofik Abdulgaziyev.

We call on the Russian authorities to:

• release Oleksandr Sizikov due to his critical health condition and release other political prisoners illegally detained on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea, other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the Russian Federation;
• stop applying the criminal law of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
• stop the persecution of people in the temporarily occupied territories because of their political views, journalistic activities, activism and religion.

We call on the Ukrainian authorities to:

• include Oleksandr Sizikov on the exchange list and actively advocate for his release;
• develop an effective mechanism for the release of arbitrarily detained civilians and advocate for their return;
• effectively support the families of political prisoners and improve the mechanism for recognising people deprived of their liberty as a result of Russian aggression.

We call on the international community to:

• send a request to the Russian Federation Ombudsman Tetiana Moskalkova with a demand to release Oleksandr Sizikov and other seriously ill citizens of Ukraine (Moskalkova@ombudsmanrf.ru);
• act as a mediator in the process of releasing or arbitrarily detaining civilians;
• fully support Ukraine in the liberation of all temporarily occupied territories, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol;
• impose personal sanctions against those involved in the cruel and inhuman treatment of Oleksandr Sizikov and all arbitrarily detained civilians;
• introduce more effective sectoral sanctions against various sectors of the Russian economy that provide the financial basis for waging an aggressive war against Ukraine;
• impose sanctions on those economic entities from around the world that allow the aggressor state to circumvent existing restrictions;
• fully support Ukraine to guarantee the de-occupation of the territories within its internationally recognised borders.

Signatories:

CrimeaSOS

Human Rights Centre ZMINA

Centre for Civil Liberties

Civic Union Human Rights House Crimea

DIYA Human Rights Centre

Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin

Crimean Human Rights Group

Struggle for Rights

NGO “Crimean Process”

Regional Center for Human Rights

“Almenda” Civic Education Center