Reacting to the Russian Supreme Court decision to uphold the 12-year prison sentence of Russian transgender anti-war activist Mark Kislitsyn, Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher, Natalia Prilutskaya, said:
“Imprisoning Mark Kislitsyn in a penal colony on ‘treason’ charges for sending U.S. $10 to an account in Ukraine defies common sense. The real aim of this prosecution is not protecting state security but punishing a committed human rights activist for his anti-war position. His relentless persecution and ill-treatment, including denial of the medical care he needs as a transgender man and prolonged arbitrary periods in a punishment cell – mostly in solitary confinement – proves this. We demand Mark Kislitsyn’s immediate release and an end to the persecution of all anti-war activists in Russia.”
In a letter from prison, Mark Kislitsyn said: “Those who are trying to intimidate me… can do me a little harm, but no matter what they do, they cannot make me renounce my beliefs, lose my sense of belonging to my country or even ruin my mood,” adding that he wants Russia “to be a home – a home, not a prison.”
Background
Mark Kislitsyn, an LGBTI activist in Moscow, protested against the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and criticized it on social media. On February 28, 2022, he was arrested and fined for his anti-war picket. He was arrested again on July 12, 2023 on charges of “high treason” (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code). Russian authorities allege that, hours after the invasion, he sent 865 roubles (then approximately U.S. $10) to a Ukrainian bank account, which they say was collecting “donations for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
On December 23, 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced Mark Kislitsyn to 12 years in a penal colony. Mark Kislitsyn, a transgender man, was placed in the women’s penal colony IK-9 in Novosibirsk (Western Siberia) and is forced to wear women’s clothing. He is being denied access to gender-affirming hormonal treatment, putting his health at serious risk.
Since November 2024, Mark Kislitsyn has repeatedly been arbitrarily placed in a punishment cell (so-called SHIZO) on spurious grounds. By the time his current punishment term expires on 17 March, he will have spent over 70 days in SHIZO. He is held in inhuman and degrading conditions including prolonged solitary confinement and numbing cold.
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