A native of Azerbaijan was convicted in Rostov-on-Don for financing terrorism.

The Southern District Military Court sentenced a native of Azerbaijan to a lengthy prison term, finding him guilty of financing militants.

The criminal prosecution of Sabir Mehdiyev was based on a money transfer sent in 2020 in response to a social media appeal. He was charged with financing terrorism (Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). This article carries a prison sentence of eight to 15 years.

According to case materials, Sabir Mehdiyev, who lived in Kalmykia, saw an ad on social media in 2020 for a fundraiser to support members of an international terrorist organization operating in Syria. The post was accompanied by a video recording containing the transfer details—bank card numbers, the press service of the military court in Rostov-on-Don reported on May 20.

From March 26 to May 23, 2020, the man transferred money four times to the bank cards listed in the ad. In court, Mehdiyev fully admitted the charges. The amount he transferred in these transfers was not specified in the statement.

The court sentenced Sabir Mehdiyev to eight years and six months in prison, with the first two years to be served in prison and the remainder in a maximum-security penal colony. He was also fined 400,000 rubles.

Sabir Mammad oglu Mehdiyev's details were added to the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists at the end of August 2025, according to a Telegram bot tracking updates to the list. According to the registry entry, Mehdiyev was born in April 1972 in the village of Danachi in the Zagatala region of Azerbaijan. This region is located in the northwest of the republic and borders Georgia to the south and Dagestan to the north.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that a military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Dagestani resident Khalid Asadulaev to a similar 8.5-year prison term for transferring cryptocurrency to a terrorist organization's account.