FSB’s video purporting to show David Adrian Kercso’s arrest was filmed months after he had already been detained.
Kercso, a Romanian who grew up in England, received a 15-year Russian prison sentence after being convicted of spying for Ukraine, allegations he denies.
His family says he travelled to the region in 2024 to meet a woman he had met online; Kercso has alleged that he was coerced and tortured in custody, claims Reuters could not independently verify.
Russia’s ‘Spy Arrest’ Video Raises Questions Over Romanian’s 15-Year Sentence
David Adrian Kercso, a Romanian who grew up in England, is serving a 15-year sentence in Russia after being convicted of spying for Ukraine. His family says he was lured to the region by an online relationship.
Summary
A video released by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) purporting to show the arrest of a Romanian man convicted of spying for Ukraine was filmed months after he had already been detained, a Reuters investigation reported on Thursday, citing an analysis of the footage and Russian court records.
David Adrian Kercso, 23, was sentenced to 15 years in a Russian prison in March after being convicted of passing information about military installations in the southern city of Sochi to Ukrainian intelligence. Reuters found that the video depicting his arrest was filmed in a park in Sochi after he had spent months in custody.
Arrest In Abkhazia
Kercso was living in Reading, west of London, and working for an electronics recycling company when he connected online with a woman named Valeria in late 2023. His family said he travelled via Turkey to meet her in August 2024.
The couple met in Sochi and later crossed into Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia backed by Russia, according to accounts Kercso gave his family. He planned to return home on November 28, 2024, but stopped responding to calls and messages.
Kercso later told his family in letters that he had been arrested in Abkhazia that day. The region’s State Security Service publicly announced his detention on December 13, 2024, alleging that he had been recruited by Ukrainian intelligence to collect information about military installations and film bases using a drone.
In a video released by the Abkhaz authorities, Kercso appeared to confess to having contacts with Ukrainian intelligence. He later said in letters that he had been made to memorise the statement after being promised he would be sent home if he recited it. Instead, he said, he was transferred to Russian FSB custody.
Court records show that Kercso appeared before a judge at Sochi’s Khostinsky District Court on December 14, 2024. His detention was extended during subsequent hearings over the following months.
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Conflicting Accounts
Reuters’ analysis placed the FSB’s arrest video in mid-April 2025, around four months after Kercso’s first recorded court appearance in Russia. The location was identified as parkland along Sochi’s Matsesta River using visible features that matched archive and satellite imagery.
A Russian lawyer familiar with the case told Reuters that the FSB had staged arrest videos in other cases involving people who had been detained months earlier.
The Krasnodar regional prosecutor’s office said the regional court convicted Kercso on March 6 under Russia’s espionage law and sentenced him to 15 years in a strict-regime prison. Prosecutors alleged that he obtained information about the location of military equipment in Sochi in August 2024 and transmitted it to a Ukrainian intelligence representative through a messaging application in November.
Kercso has denied the allegations in letters to his family, saying his confession was coerced. He also alleged that he was beaten, held in isolation and tortured after being transferred to Russia.
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