An ethnic Ingush man has been charged in Belgium with financing terrorism.

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In Belgium, a prosecutor has requested a 15-year prison sentence for Ruslan Meyriev, a native of Vladikavkaz and an ethnic Ingush, extradited from Sweden on terrorism charges.

"At the court hearing on March 9 in Antwerp, new circumstances and a video were presented. Meyriev's lawyer said he needed time to review the new evidence, and the trial was postponed until April." "But the prosecutor has already requested 15 years for Meyriev on terrorism charges," human rights activist Fatima Gazieva, head of the Women of the World for Peace on Earth association, who is in direct contact with Meyriev, told a Caucasian Knot correspondent on March 27.

"The trial is being held behind closed doors. He received permission from the investigative authorities to call his relatives, his lawyer, and me. He can't call anyone else. There are six volumes in the case, and the free lawyers haven't done anything." "A new, paid lawyer has made inquiries to Finland, where Meyriev had refugee status, and Ukraine, where he lived," Gazieva said.

This case has no connection to the request from Russia, and regardless of the outcome of the case in Belgium, his extradition to Russia is not planned.

"He is very psychologically distressed. He is ill; at one point he walked with crutches. Now, he says, when he is brought to court, they put on a very heavy bulletproof vest. Because he is being tried as a terrorist—that is the protocol. Three other defendants are also being tried with him. He says he has never seen them before, but they are involved in the same case. In fact, the case against Meyriev was opened after those already convicted in Belgium pointed the finger at him, and correspondence allegedly containing Meyriev's phone number was found in their belongings. "This case is unrelated to the request from Russia, and regardless of the outcome of the case in Belgium, his extradition to Russia is not planned," Gazieva explained.

A lawyer in the asylum case in Finland, a member of the Finnish Bar Association, confirmed Meyriev's refugee status in a conversation with a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. The lawyer declined to comment further, citing legal ethics: detailed comments could be viewed negatively by the Belgian court.

"He had political asylum in Finland, he was studying, everything was fine. During a trip to Sweden, he was detained at the request from Belgium. He previously lived in Ukraine, helping Crimean Tatars during the siege of Crimea, then moved and lived in Zaporizhzhia. "Then I lived in Kyiv, helped volunteer battalions, and was a volunteer," Gazieva said.

"When, God forbid, heads are cut off here, people are killed, or a person does something like that somewhere, that person must be held accountable. Whatever happens, killing people is wrong. But this person didn't do anything like that in Finland or Belgium; there's nothing like that. But they're presenting him with messages he exchanged via phone, conversations, some videos, some photographs, and a trip to Syria," Gazieva said.

"He spent several months in custody in Ukraine and was arrested at the request of Interpol from Russia. With the help of Crimean Tatar deputies, he was rescued. "This was under Poroshenko," Gazieva said.

Refat Chubarov, a former member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from 1995 to 1998, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he defended Meyriev when he lived in Ukraine several years ago.

He lived in Ukraine, and actions against him were inconsistent with the charges they were trying to incriminate him with.

"We defended Ruslan when he lived in Ukraine, and actions against him were inconsistent with the charges they were trying to incriminate him with. He wasn't alone—there was a group of people against whom Ukrainian law enforcement agencies falsified evidence. We looked into the situation, and ultimately, the criminal case was dropped. I helped because Meyriev was married and had a very small child <...> Then we took care of this family because they had a child. They lived in Melitopol, if I'm not mistaken, in rather difficult financial circumstances. He was ill, with some back problems, as far as I remember. The public there helped, and relatives came to visit him. But after that, contact was lost. I don't know what he was doing or what he's accused of now," Chubarov said. "In 2016-2017, we summoned law enforcement to the Verkhovna Rada committee; we did it all publicly, we examined it. And they had to admit that everything they were accused of was unprovable. "There was, in my opinion, even a planted weapon and other such things," Chubarov explained.

"There are people who are active in public life, and no matter what their troubles, they are always in the public eye. Ruslan wasn't that kind of person, and his relatives, and then human rights activists, came to me about his problem. Not because he was some kind of activist, but because—and it was obvious then—law enforcement agencies had committed a forgery against him. This happened sometime in 2017. It was a typical fabricated case. That case was closed, and after that, I didn't follow his life," he added.

As far as I know, he is accused of traveling to Syria based on photographs. He denies it.

Also, according to Chubarov, Meyriev left Ukraine in 2022. "He says I already knew my health wouldn't allow me to fight anymore; he had eye surgery in Kyiv. He had a family, so he went to Finland with them. Since 2024, for almost two years, he's been in custody in Belgium. As far as I know, they're accusing him of traveling to Syria based on photographs. He denies it," Gazieva concluded. According to her, the date of the new court hearing in Antwerp in April is still unknown.

Earlier, "Caucasian Knot" reported that Muslim Tsintsaev, a native of Chechnya detained in France, faced deportation to his homeland in 2024, and representatives of the diaspora held rallies in his defense.