Seriously ill Crimean Muslim released from penal colony

Tofik Abdulgaziev, a Crimean Muslim, was released from a penal colony on health grounds on 26 October. He has since returned to occupied Crimea from Chelyabinsk Oblast, where he had been serving his sentence, his wife, Aliye Kurtametova, wrote on Facebook.

The court had been considering his application for release since January. Two medical reports found that Abdulgaziev’s illnesses were incompatible with imprisonment. According to Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, the first was issued on 26 February and submitted to the court immediately, but Abdulgaziev was sent for a second examination. The second report, issued on 29 July, reached the same conclusion.

In March 2024, Abdulgaziev was admitted to the intensive care unit at Prison Hospital No. 3 in Chelyabinsk in a serious condition. The following month, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, bilateral pneumonia, a small left-sided pleural effusion (a build-up of fluid around the lung) and several other conditions, including heart and kidney problems. In December 2025, doctors found a malignant brain tumour. He underwent an examination after he began losing his sight: he had completely lost his peripheral vision, while his central vision was cloudy and blurred. That month, he also said he had started having blackouts and was trying not to stray far from his bed. In January, he told his wife that his coordination was deteriorating and he was finding it difficult to walk. On 14 March, Aliye Kurtametova wrote that his blood glucose level had risen as high as 26 mmol/L. In September, he is believed to have suffered a mini-stroke.

Tofik Abdulgaziev is an activist with Crimean Solidarity who lived in Simferopol before his arrest. He was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in 2022 on charges of involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Russia has designated a ‘terrorist’ organisation but which is legal in Ukraine.