A 23-year-old Romanian man who grew up in the UK embarked on a journey to the Black Sea region to meet his online girlfriend, but suddenly went missing, and was ultimately sentenced to 15 years in prison by Russia on charges of espionage. The footage released by the Russian authorities was found to have significant discrepancies by the media: at the time the video was filmed, he had actually been in custody for several months.
According to a report by Reuters on Thursday (October 22nd), the man’s name is David Adrian Kercso, who lived in Reading, west of London, and originally worked at an electronic waste recycling company.
At the end of 2023, he met a woman named Valeria from Abkhazia online, and their relationship gradually developed into a romantic one. Abkhazia is located within Georgia and has been controlled by pro-Russian separatist forces since the 1990s. In August 2024, Kercso, disregarding his mother’s advice, traveled to Sochi, Russia, via Turkey to meet his girlfriend, and they later entered Abkhazia together.
Months later, running out of money, Kercso told his family that he was preparing to return to the UK, originally scheduled for November 28, 2024. However, on that day, he suddenly went missing. Despite multiple calls and messages from his family, they never received a response.
Two weeks later, the Abkhazian security forces released a video in which Kercso admitted to contacting the Ukrainian intelligence service and being tasked with using drones to photograph local military facilities.
However, Kercso later wrote to his family from prison, stating that these confessions were scripted by the guards who instructed him to memorize the content, assuring him that he would be able to go home as long as he followed their instructions. Contrary to expectations, instead of being released after the video was filmed, he was handed over to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
The Russian authorities later released another video. In the footage, Kercso, wearing a blue knitted hat and carrying an Adidas backpack, was seen walking alone on a path in a park in Sochi. Suddenly, a car stopped, and two security personnel rushed out of the vehicle, tackling him to the ground.
Despite appearing to be a swift arrest in the video, Reuters discovered significant discrepancies in it.
Court records indicate that Kercso had appeared in court in Sochi as early as December 14, 2024, and had attended court at least 10 times within the following four months, with the remand period continuously extended. The lush foliage in the video suggests it may have been filmed in spring, not matching the time of his disappearance in November 2024.
In a letter, Kercso stated that one morning in mid-April this year, security personnel took him from prison to the park and requested his cooperation in filming the arrest video. After comparing court records, satellite imagery, and the actual environment, Reuters found discrepancies in the timing of the arrest shown in the video.
The Russian side accused Kercso of providing the location of the Sochi Russian military air defense system to the Ukrainian intelligence service in the summer of 2024. In March of this year, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of espionage by the Krasnodar Regional Court.
Kercso denied the charges and claimed to have been subjected to beatings, solitary confinement, and torture during his detention, with his confession coerced. Reuters stated that they could not independently verify these experiences or all the evidence in the case.
Reuters had sought responses from the Russian Federal Security Service, the Abkhazian security forces, and relevant national diplomatic institutions regarding the case and the arrest video, but had not received a response at the time of reporting.
Currently, Kercso is hoping to appeal the verdict. In a letter to his family from prison, he expressed that his decision to go to the region was a huge mistake, as he was blinded by love and failed to notice the danger signals.