Romanian National Sentenced to 15 Years in Russia for Espionage, Family Claims Coercion

A 23-year-old Romanian national, David Adrian Kercso, has been sentenced to 15 years in a Russian prison on espionage charges. His family states he was lured to Eastern Europe to pursue a relationship and subsequently tortured into confessing to spying for Ukraine.

Kercso, who was working for an electronics recycling company, reportedly connected with a Georgian woman named Valeria online in 2023. Their relationship blossomed, and his family claims he traveled to Turkey in August 2024 to meet her. According to Kercso's accounts to his family, the couple met in Sochi, Russia, and then crossed the border into Abkhazia, a Georgian territory controlled by separatists. He remained there through the autumn.

His mother reported that the relationship deteriorated as Kercso began to run short of money, and he informed his family of his intention to return home. His planned travel back to the UK was for November 28, 2024, but he ceased all communication on that day. In subsequent letters from prison, Kercso stated this was the date of his arrest in Abkhazia.

The first public announcement of Kercso's arrest came two weeks later, on December 13, from the Abkhazian separatist authorities. They released a video showing their security service leading Kercso from a car into a building. In the footage, he appeared to confess to being in contact with Ukrainian intelligence and being instructed to film Abkhazian military sites with a drone.

Kercso's letters describe the initial confession video filmed in Abkhazia as being based on a text he was ordered to memorize, with the separatists promising he would be sent home if he recited it on camera. Instead, he wrote that he was taken to the border and handed over to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

He appeared before a judge at Sochi's Khostinsky District Court on December 14, the day after the Abkhazian video was released. Court records indicate this was the first of 10 court appearances over four months, during which his detention was repeatedly extended. Kercso's letters suggest that a staged Russian video of his "arrest" was filmed in mid-April in Sochi, after he had already been in Russian custody for four months. He recounts being awakened by FSB officers and taken to film the scene, which depicts him being apprehended by agents. Analysis of the video and court records indicates that the filming occurred after he had already been detained for months, evidenced by the green foliage visible, suggesting a post-winter setting.

Evgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer, stated that it is common practice for the FSB to compel detainees to film staged arrest scenes long after their apprehension. Kercso alleges in his letters that he was subjected to beatings, isolation, and torture in the months following his transfer to Russia, though these claims could not be independently verified. The FSB stated upon his sentencing that he transmitted the locations of Russian air-defense systems in Sochi to a Ukrainian intelligence agency in the summer of 2024, releasing video footage of him confessing to this charge. Kercso maintains that this confession was also coerced, writing, "None of that happened, they stole my life for no reason and fabricated everything." He has learned Russian in prison and expressed deep longing for his family and a desire to return home, stating, "Now I know that coming here was a huge mistake. I was blinded by love and didn't see the warning signs."