Mark Kislitsyn was sentenced to 12 years in prison after sending US$10 to an account in Ukraine
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE VIA AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International has urged for the release of a trans man in Russia who was arrested after sending US$10 to an account in Ukraine. Mark Kislitsyn is currently being kept in poor conditions, with Amnesty reporting that he is being denied “the medical care he needs as a transgender man”.
Arrested in 2023 for sending US$10 to a Ukrainian bank account, which Russian authorities claim was collecting “donations for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”, Kislitsyn was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony.
He was placed in a woman’s penal colony in Novosibirsk, and was forced to wear women’s clothing. He is being denied access to gender-affirming care, creating a real risk to his health. Since November last year, he has been placed in solitary confinement multiple times. Amnesty has described his conditions as being “inhuman and degrading”.
Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher, Natalia Prilutskaya, said: “Imprisoning Mark Kislitsyn in a penal colony on ‘treason’ charges for sending US$ 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.”
She continued: “We demand Mark Kislitsyn’s immediate release and an end to the persecution of all anti-war activists in Russia.”
In a letter written from prison, Kislitsyn revealed that he had not lost hope despite the conditions imposed on him. “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,” he wrote.
In November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court labelled the so-called “international LGBT movement” as extremist and the ruling came into effect in early 2024.
DIVA magazine celebrates 31 years in print in 2025. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
