The defense demanded that the terrorism case against Andzor Khalilov be dropped.

At a hearing in the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria to consider the defense's appeal against the decision to arrest Andzor Khalilov, the developer, who is currently in pretrial detention, stated that he "did not hide or run away." The defense believes that the case under the article on terrorism financing should be dismissed.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," the charges against Andzor Khalilov, a developer from Kabardino-Balkaria arrested after being deported to Russia from the UAE, are based on the testimony of a witness, Kardanov, whom the defendant himself calls fictitious. Another defendant in the case of collecting money for militants also denies the charges.

Andzor Khalilov's defense petitioned the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to obtain information about Khalilov's detention in the UAE. The lawyer included responses from government agencies in the United Arab Emirates, according to which he was detained on October 1, 2025, and immediately placed into custody. Thus, the defense insists that the two-month pretrial detention period imposed on him in absentia by the Nalchik City Court has long since expired, and Khalilov is being held in pretrial detention illegally, Gazeta Yuga reports today.

According to lawyer Vyacheslav Blazhko, in the first days of 2026, he petitioned the duty prosecutor of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic to issue a ruling for Khalilov's immediate release.

"Deputy Prosecutor of Kabardino-Balkaria Zhukov wrote in his response that, yes, the period of detention in a foreign state should indeed be included in the overall period of detention, but there is no information in the criminal case file that Khalilov was detained in the UAE at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation," Vyacheslav Blazhko stated.

The lawyer stated that the defense intends to prove the extent of Andzor's criminal liability. Khalilov, the so-called principle of specificity, established by the extradition treaty between the United Arab Emirates and the Russian Federation.

"This means that if a citizen was requested and extradited to the Russian Federation for a specific crime, he cannot be convicted, prosecuted, or detained for any other crimes committed previously. In this case, this concerns part of the charge of illegally raising funds from equity holders - he is accused of four counts, but was requested for only two," the lawyer emphasized.

The defense also believes that the terrorism financing case, in accordance with the guarantee the Russian Federation, represented by the Prosecutor General's Office, gave against Khalilov not to prosecute him in any other cases, should be dismissed.

Khalilov himself claims that he was not hiding from the investigation and asked to be given the opportunity to return to people "what belongs to them."

"I flew abroad for personal reasons. The reason I was there... "I'm in the case. While I was there, these problems started: they wanted to take money from me. I, naturally, said that I didn't have that kind of money. What I'm saying now, and what I previously said in voice and video messages, I can prove all of this. And I can take a polygraph test at any time and answer any question regarding my affairs. I've been asking for two years now: give me the opportunity to finish what I started and give the people what already belongs to them," said Andzor Khalilov.

Andzor Khalilov is known as one of the largest developers in Kabardino-Balkaria. In the summer of 2024, his wife was among the parents of graduates of a Nalchik school who didn't get up from their seats during the playing of the Russian anthem at their graduation. Then the security forces drew up administrative reports against nine people, at least eight of whom were fined three thousand rubles each.