The court has overturned the decision to release the blind Crimean.

At the end of May, Alexander Sizikov was released from his sentence on health grounds—due to complete blindness and hypertension. However, the appeal court overturned this decision. This was reported by the Prison Lawyer project.

After his release, Alexander said:

“I realised I’d forgotten how to press the buttons, use the gestures. I switched on the laptop too—blimey, what do I do here? I started remembering everything, absolutely everything.”

According to the Prison Lawyer project, Alexander is currently safe.

• In 2023, Sizikov was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a case related to organising the activity of Hizb ut-Tahrir. The physical evidence consisted of books allegedly found with the Crimean, which he could not read. Hizb ut-Tahrir is designated as a terrorist group in Russia. Human rights organisations have repeatedly drawn attention to the unjust nature of this status.

“The world’s first terrorist like this.” Interview with blind Muslim Alexander Sizikov after his release from prison “A transfer is just a drawn-out male striptease.”

OVD-Info

05 June 2025