The family linked the persecution of Rustem Aybazov to the collection of aid for Gaza residents.

The Southern Federal Military Court extended the detention of Rustem Aybazov, an activist from the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and a father of five, by six months. The investigation's allegations of deliberate terrorism financing are based on testimony from security officials and hidden witnesses; relatives and the accused himself link the persecution to large-scale aid collections for the residents of Gaza.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don on February 12 has begun examining the case on the merits against Rustem Aybazov, an activist from the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. He is accused of financing terrorism. Investigators claim that in 2024, he transferred approximately 17,400 rubles to a person who, according to security officials, sent funds to ISIS members. The charges are largely based on the testimony of the recipient of the money, operatives, and a "hidden witness." Aybazov himself denies guilt and claims that the transfers had no terrorist intent.

Relatives and associates link the criminal prosecution not to the transfers, but to his charitable activities—large-scale aid collections for residents of the Gaza Strip. According to them, the activist had long been under the control of security forces due to his religious and social activism, and the case is a public service announcement.

Associates claim that over the past six months, initiatives associated with him have raised approximately 400 million rubles for humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has attracted the attention of security forces. A separate incident concerns the seizure of approximately 15.7 million rubles, which, according to sources, was ultimately used not for aid to Gaza, but for the needs of the Central Military District. The authorities have not officially commented on this, and the Caucasian Knot is awaiting a response from the regional muftiate to accusations of involvement in the misuse of these funds.

Aybazov is currently in pretrial detention. The extension of Rustam's pretrial detention on February 12 took place via videoconference from the Cherkessk pretrial detention center, relatives told a Caucasian Knot correspondent. "The pretrial detention was extended for six months, but we don't know until when. The hearing itself took place via videoconference; Rustam was not transferred to court," the relative reported. The court adjourned until February 18, according to the case file on the Southern District Military Court website. According to relatives, Aybazov is scheduled to be transferred to Rostov-on-Don by the next hearing.

Relatives: Gaza donations are directly linked to Aybazov's persecution

On February 10, four volunteers who were working with Rustem to raise funds for aid to Gaza were detained in Karachay-Cherkessia, a local activist told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on condition of anonymity.

"The activist collecting aid for Gaza, who was also the administrator of WhatsApp* groups for aid to Gaza, was detained and closed on the same charges as Rustem. The other administrators were also detained by security forces, but were later released and told that if you "If you become active, you'll be next. They were taken away on February 10," the source said.

This further confirms the theory that Rustem is being persecuted for raising money to aid Gaza, a relative of Aybazov, who asked not to be named, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"He spent the last eight years of his life in cargo transportation: he drove a Gazelle van between Cherkessk and Moscow, and Moscow and Cherkessk. On one of these trips to Moscow, while browsing Telegram, he came across a post from one of the sisters (by faith). She wrote that she was in the Al-Hol camp—a refugee camp—and needed help. The help was needed in the form of food: food, water for her and the children, and so on. The situation evoked certain emotions in him, because he's a compassionate person and, given the opportunity, couldn't ignore someone else's misfortune. He asked how he could help her, to which she replied that he could send aid in the form of cryptocurrency. At the time, he had no idea what cryptocurrency was. It was 2024. He told the girl that he had a Sberbank card and could make a transfer to Sber,” the source said, quoting Rustem Aybazov.

The girl, according to the man, provided the details of a “brother,” without specifying whether he was related by blood or not.

“He didn’t even imagine that tomorrow this could become a question of financing something terrorist. Firstly, she’s his sister. Secondly, she’s in a refugee camp. Thirdly, he had no information about who she was or what her story was. And fourthly: how could she be a terrorist if she’s in a refugee camp, essentially in captivity? How can a captive person even be a terrorist? This was the logic Rustem followed. Without a second thought, he transferred 5,000 rubles the first time, and 5 the second time. "000 rubles, the third time 7,500. Ultimately, he was charged with financing terrorism for three transfers that actually took place in 2024," he said.

He subsequently had no contact with the woman from the refugee camp who asked for help. "It was a one-time encounter. I asked for help, and he helped as much as he could. At the time, he wasn't involved in any systematic charitable work: this was his personal assistance, as best he could. And then everything was forgotten. He couldn't even remember these transfers because he didn't attach the slightest significance to them," the relative says.

After the charges were filed, investigators informed the relatives that the person to whom Aybazov had transferred funds, a young Chechen, had also been detained some three or four months before Rustam.

He confessed to having long been involved in "sponsoring terrorism," in particular the "Islamic State," and so on. "And he supplied these women who are in the camp—and there is not just one, there are a huge number of them—with his bank details and said that if anyone wants to help, they should pass on his details and so on," the relative says.

Aybazov, according to his relatives, does not deny the transfers themselves, but he denies any financing of terrorism and the intent to commit it.

"The court-appointed lawyer who participated in the first interrogation did not explain to him the difference between the transfer of funds and intent, essentially persuading him to admit guilt, on the basis that he does not deny the transfer of funds. In fact, he did not carry out any financing of terrorism, because he does not recognize or approve of terrorist entities in any form. "That's why he now maintains his innocence, because he understands that the transfer itself is not a crime. Now he says he committed no crime, did not finance terrorism, but merely provided all possible assistance to his sister, who needed food and water along with her children. This is both his position and ours," the relative said.

Speaking about the investigation's version, the relatives point out the dubiousness of the testimony of hidden witnesses, as well as of security officials with a stake in the outcome of the case and those dependent on them.

"They have a hidden witness who claims that in 2024, in a parking lot of a shopping center, he saw Rustem in the company of two other brothers, and they allegedly were heatedly discussing some issues there, and he began eavesdropping. In the end, he says that these two addressed Rustam by the name Abu Hamza. And he took this kunya (his eldest son is called Hamza) starting in March 2025, that is, the month of Ramadan, so that he would have a resonant name on social media, WhatsApp* groups, and so on. And since then, he has been known as Hamza. But not since 2024—only since March 2025. The witness, however, claims that he was already called that in 2024. So this is their first "blunder." Secondly, they believe it will be easy to believe such nonsense, that they loudly discussed Rustam financing the terrorism of the Islamic State*, using exactly those words. It's honestly ridiculous: who, firstly, is talking about this at the top of their lungs, and secondly, is using these terms—"ISIS," "Islamic State," and so on. To discuss such things, there's no need to go into such detail. This is the kind of testimony they have from a “hidden witness,” the relative said.

Another witness in the investigation is an FSB detective, who testifies that since 2016, Rustam has been imbued with the ideology of ISIS* and until 2024, he harbored criminal intent, including the financing of terrorism, which ultimately resulted in the transfer of 17,500 rubles, the source says.

“A person who has allegedly been imbued with the ideology since 2016 sits and thinks about how to help, and only in 2024 does he have an “opportunity,” and he can’t think of anything better than to transfer money from his Sberbank card to another Sberbank card. A person who has been “imbued with the ideology,” a person who understands that he can go to jail for this. And by 2024, there were hundreds of such cases, which everyone knew about. The employee says that “they conducted a deep investigation, the details of which constitute a state secret,” and that they found out that “Aybazov knowingly and intentionally transferred these funds.” The defense filed a motion to call defense witnesses—ten people, completely different, who knew him before and after the start of his charitable activities and could confirm that he was not known as Abu Hamza until he began actively helping the Palestinians of Gaza. "The petition was rejected," the relative concluded.

Aybazov's wife spoke about the unlawful behavior of security forces during the search

Both Aybazov's arrest and the legal proceedings against him were conducted with numerous violations of criminal procedure law and with abuse of power by law enforcement officers, Aybazov's wife told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Aybazov's wife

"The investigator indicates in the report that he was detained somewhere around 6:00 PM, but in reality it was 6:20 AM, and there were a lot of them, they were screaming despite the fact that we had three small children at home. The children were crying very loudly. The kids still say, when they remember, "These bad guys with machine guns came to us." There were actually about 50 of them in five vehicles: two Gazelles and about three or four cars. They didn't tell me who they were or where they were taking him. They stayed with us until about 11:00 a.m., and the whole time we sat under the "guard" of a masked man with a machine gun. "Everyone was wearing masks, with spotlights shining on their foreheads because it was still very dark, and they were screaming like crazy, opening cabinets, checking, knowing in advance that there was nothing and no one there," Aybazov's wife said.

She also pointed to the fabrication of testimony by key prosecution witnesses, in particular the claim of a hidden witness that he heard Rustam referred to as Abu Hamza as early as 2024.

"Until March 25th of last year, he was simply Rustam. I personally made fundraising images calling for help for the residents of Gaza, and we distributed them among our contacts. From March 25th, we began calling him Abu Hamza, for greater recognition. And from that moment on, those who met him knew him by that name,” the girl said, refuting the testimony of the hidden witness.

The family provided the “Caucasian Knot” with several versions of the propaganda images, where the outgoing data of the files shows that the image where Aybazov’s contacts are signed with the name Rustam is dated March 24, 2025, and with the name Abu Hamza – starting from March 25, 2025.

Aybazov’s wife also indicates that her husband went to the shopping center, which appears in the testimony of the hidden witness, where Aybazov allegedly talked about financing ISIS*, at her request.

“The phones seized from our house contain my correspondence with Rustam, where I ask him "To stop by that very shopping center [mentioned in the testimony]. It was at the end of August; my family and I had returned from the seaside in Abkhazia, and we needed to get the children ready for school, and I texted Rustem to stop by the shopping center. They describe this visit to the shopping center as a conspiracy meeting of conspirators, whose conversation was accidentally overheard by a bystander, whom the investigators then accidentally found to extract the necessary testimony from him," Aybazov's wife said.

She notes the severe psychological consequences for the children's psyche after the security forces' visit to their home.

"The children still haven't recovered from the shock. When they came to install Wi-Fi, my five-year-old son hid behind me, seeing strange men. Every night they make dua to Allah to punish them for what they did to us, especially since the children were sick and they practically tore down our doors, it was 6:00 a.m. There are witnesses to all of this, our neighbors. The children's psychological state has changed dramatically. We've even started getting sick more often, they've become tearful, even crying over trifles. The younger ones constantly ask before bed, "Will those villains come again in masks and with machine guns?" I try to calm them down, but they wake up frequently at night, looking around, afraid of shadows and sounds, and often think about that morning. I can't leave them and go to work; we live on child benefits. Before that, we also lived on them for about five months, until September 20th, because the father of the family tried day and night to help the people of Palestine. We're trying to save money now, but it's very difficult. We live on the outskirts of the village, and winter is especially scary and difficult. "We hope that our loving father will return to us soon in good health," concluded Aybazova.

* A terrorist organization banned in Russia.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.