Russia jails man extradited from France for IS terrorism

Ruslan Botashev

A Russian military court has sentenced a man extradited from France to 18 years in prison for training and fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

Ruslan Botashev, 47, was convicted by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don of participating in a terrorist organisation and undergoing militant training.

He will serve the first five years of his sentence in a high-security prison, with the remaining 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

Botashev was extradited from France in August 2025, having spent nearly seven years in French custody while Russian authorities sought his return.

According to the prosecution, Botashev travelled to the Muaskar-Sabri training camp in Syria via Turkey in late 2014.

There, he received weapons and combat training before pledging allegiance to IS in early 2015. Prosecutors alleged he subsequently fought Syrian government forces and helped to mine underground tunnels in Aleppo.

In September 2018, Botashev flew to Paris's Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport using a forged Ukrainian passport, which he discarded before claiming political asylum under his real name.

However, French police arrested him under an international warrant. Following his extradition, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said France had granted the transfer request after years of Botashev "evading joint efforts to combat crime".

Botashev denied all the charges, claiming he had lived in Turkey during that period and had never set foot in Syria.

He told the court his previous confessions during the preliminary investigation were untrue, saying they were made under extreme stress caused by his prolonged detention in France.

Botashev was born in the village of Marukha in the North Caucasus region of Karachay-Cherkessia, which was then part of the Soviet Union's Stavropol region.