In 2016, when Vadym Syruk was arrested in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, his only daughter Amira was two years old. She was not afraid of the search and the FSB officers - she carefully examined the strangers who were rummaging through her parents' personal belongings. Vadym was taken away, and Amira searched for him for several months. She used to pull her mother's hand while walking to see her father at work. Before his arrest, Vadym was selling vegetables and fruits at the market in Yalta. That morning, in addition to Syruk, the occupiers imprisoned several other Crimeans: human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku, religious activist Muslim Aliyev, and school guard Inver Bekirov. Investigators accused them of "terrorist activity" through overheard telephone conversations on religious and political topics. 

Six months after the search, Vadym’s wife Anna gave birth to their second daughter, Hanifa. When the girl was two weeks old, Vadym was scheduled for a second court hearing in Simferopol.

"I wanted to show our second child to my husband because he hadn't even seen her. Maybe it could’ve cheered him up somehow. In the end, Vadym saw her for a couple of seconds from afar when he was being led from the court building to the police car," that period of Anna’s life is still painful for her to recall. Her husband was arrested when she was four months pregnant. Little Amira totally lost her appetite after her father’s arrest. At the age of two and a half, the girl could only eat infant formula.

"We lived in a rented house in Yalta, and after the search, I did not renew the lease. Endless courts began, we lived with my relatives for a while, then with my husband's family. That's when it hit Amira. A complete change of scenery, her dad’s missing - she stopped eating. We managed to cope with it, but it took a long time." Anna recalls how one day she came with Amira to the police station and took her out of there almost fainting. "The metal bars at the entrance were closing, and I realized that my child was as white as a wall and was about to fall over. Apparently, she had flashbacks, and realized that if her dad was locked up, then she could as well be locked up," says Anna.

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Then she decided to talk to the children "like an adult". She prepared the girls before each court hearing. 

"I just told it as it is. Today we are leaving, tomorrow morning we will be in Rostov, we have this much time to rest and eat. Then you are going to see your father, and we will have this much time to see him. You can't talk or shout. You can't interrupt the judge. You can wave to your father. You can't run to him. You can't hug him. Otherwise, next time we won't be allowed in the courtroom at all," Vadym's wife recalls.

After his arrest, the family bought a small house in a village in the Nizhnegorsk district of Crimea - Vadym's parents and friends helped them. Housing prices there were much lower than in Yalta, and Amira liked the quiet countryside very much. She began to smile more often and spent a lot of time in the yard with her sister.

"My father-in-law saw that there was a barn in the yard and gave us a chicken and a rooster. It just went from there," Anna shows us her farm, which is now many times bigger. She now raises poultry for sale, and Amira has her first responsibilities in life. 

"We wake up and go to open the doors for the chickens and geese. We pour water, feed them, and let them out as needed. And over there, the ducks are sleeping. And this is a dog, his name is Bim," Amira hugs the black and white yard dog.

Anna helped her daughter join a nature club and enrolled her in gymnastics. They started learning languages together - Amira English and Anna Arabic. Amira didn't go to kindergarten because she couldn't be separated from her mother for more than a few hours.

"In general, I thought that Amira had no problems because of Vadym's arrest, but the stress and refusal to eat eventually showed up in the form of illnesses and stunted growth. Amira is a cardiologist’s patient, and this year an endocrinologist sent her for an examination," says Anna.

Amira and her father have a special bond - they not only look alike, but everyone notices the similarity of their personalities. Amira is a little fighter, serious and focused. She is currently in the fifth grade, home-schooled - partly in an online school, partly with teachers. She switched from gymnastics to karate, and then to the taekwondo section. Her parents approve of this choice. She recently received a yellow belt. Each color in this sport is a step towards the black belt she dreams of.

"My dad is happy. He says it's self-defense, it's useful. In general, keeping fit and in good shape is an important thing." This year, Amira took part in four competitions and won prizes at each of them. 

During the eight years that Amira grew up without a father, she had just a few meetings with Vadym. Anna took her and Hanifa to court hearings several times and Amina’s grandmother to the pre-trial detention center. 

"My father sent a drawing through his lawyer - there was a heart with a spear. We talked twice on the phone - where you talk through the glass (in the pre-trial detention center). When we travel, my grandmother always takes candy with her, mostly “fizzy” ones. While she and my dad were talking, we put our hands in her pocket and ate all the candy. Then we saw each other two or three times in court. And twice more when we traveled to Ufa," Amira recounts her visits with her father. 

Now the family communicates with Vadym mainly through correspondence - they are allowed to see him only twice a year. Amira and Hanifa send their father postcards and drawings to the colony in Bashkortostan, from which he is due to return home in three and a half years. She collects her father's responses in a separate locker and does not yet know how she will meet him.

"They don't understand what it's like to have dad home. They ask: "Mom, what are we going to do when our dad comes back? Where will he sleep?" - Anna says. 

"I think there will be a lot of cakes. He will live with my mom in the living room," Amira plans. 

Vadym Syruk was born in the Nizhnegorsk district of Crimea in 1989. At the age of 16, he moved to Yalta and converted to Islam at the age of 20. Since childhood, he has been friends with Crimean Tatars. On February 11, 2016, he was arrested by the FSB. On November 12, 2019, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 12 years in prison for his ties to Hizb ut-Tahrir (part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and for "preparing a seizure of power" (Article 278 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a religious organization that publicly operated in Crimea until 2014 and continues to operate in Ukraine. It is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia.

Amnesty International has recognized Vadym Syruk as a prisoner of conscience and demands his release, the European Parliament has repeatedly mentioned him in its resolutions, but he remains in a Russian prison.