Mark Davydov

Alushta resident. On 11 October 2019, he was detained at Krasnodar airport, from where he was going to fly to Istanbul. Davydov later recounted that a FSS operative beat him right at the airport and threatened him with further violence and arrest of his loved ones. Davydov was taken into custody on charges of financing terrorism, preparing to finance terrorism and preparing to participate in the activities of a terrorist organisation. According to the investigation, he helped Farrukh Faizimatov (Faruk Shami), a citizen of Tajikistan, to collect money for the needs of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement (in the verdict - Hayat Tahri al-Sham), which took part in the fighting in Syria against the troops of the then government, and at the same time against Russian servicemen who helped them, transferred money to him for the same purposes and intended to go to Syria and join the movement there. Representatives of that movement have now seized power in Syria. Davydov initially gave a confession. At the trial, he retracted them, saying that he had done so for fear of torture and threats. He said that he did not know about the movement's activities and only wanted to help the people of Syria. On 7 April 2021, Davydov was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony. At the same time, the court reclassified the charge on one of the episodes of terrorism financing to aiding in financing, the charge of preparing to participate in the activities of a terrorist organisation was reclassified to preparation for attempted participation, and the charge of preparing to finance terrorism was dropped. On 6 October 2021, the appeal court reclassified the charge from preparation for attempted participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation to preparation for participation in the activities of an illegal armed group. Davydov's sentence was reduced by two months. On 21 September 2022, the court of cassation instance returned the charge of preparing to finance terrorism and reduced the sentence to 17 years' imprisonment in a strict regime colony.