In the Bakhchysarai district of temporarily occupied Crimea, security forces conducted a search on the night of October 23 and detained visually impaired Oleksandr Sizikov, who was released from prison in May due to illness.
The Crimean Solidarity NGO reported this, citing the detainee’s mother, Olena Sizikova, according to Ukrinform.
According to Sizikova, late in the evening on October 22, several cars drove up to their house, and about 12 people “burst in and read out a decree from some investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Bakhchysarai district.” “A police lieutenant wrote a statement against Oleksandr. They took him away,” the woman said.
It is noted that during the search, police officers seized two laptops and all the Sizikov family’s phones.
As reported, Sizikov was detained on July 7, 2020, during mass searches in Crimea along with six other people. All those detained were accused of involvement in the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia.
In May 2023, Sizikov, a Muslim, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, with the first four years to be served in prison. On September 13, 2024, the Russian Federation’s military appeals court upheld the Crimean resident’s sentence.
In May 2025, a court in the Krasnoyarsk region of the Russian Federation released Sizikov.
On October 21, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court overturned the decision to release visually impaired Oleksandr Sizikov and ordered him to be returned to prison. The Court of Appeal granted the prosecutor’s request.
Photo: Crimean Solidarity