All assessments of the criminal prosecution of specific individuals, including the designation of detained persons as political prisoners, reflect the position of our Project. Such assessments are not based on the views and assessments of the individuals being prosecuted, their families, friends or lawyers, and do not imply their consent or approval. The information regarding the facts of specific criminal cases published on our Project’s website has been obtained from public sources and does not imply or require the consent of the individuals mentioned therein or their representatives.

Kercho Adrian-David

Date of birth: October 31, 2002 (23 years old)
citizenship: Румыния
City of residence: неизвестно
Occupation: ремонтные услуги
Article of the Criminal Code:  276
Pursuit stage:  решение суда вступило в силу
Date of arrest:  December 13, 2024
Sentence:  15 лет лишения свободы в колонии строгого режима
Date of sentencing:  March 5, 2026
Current location:  Remand Prison No. 1, Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for Krasnodar Oblast
Hobbies: Видеоигры, фото и видеосъемки с дрона, страйкбол, путешествия.

Adrian-David Kercho is a Romanian citizen living in England. At the age of 22, he came to Abkhazia to marry a woman he met online. A few months later, in November 2024, he was detained by Abkhaz security forces, who subsequently handed him over to their Russian counterparts. For four months, Adrian-David Kercho was held in a special detention facility, subjected to "carousel arrests" and under the impression that if he confessed to espionage, he would merely be deported from Russia to Romania or exchanged. FSB officers tortured the young man, and he was forced to confess to sending Ukrainian intelligence officers photographs of an air defense installation taken from a quadcopter. The court sentenced Kercho to 15 years in a maximum-security penal colony.