Court opens case against Kyrgyz citizen accused of funding terrorism

The Vilnius Regional Court on Monday held the first hearing in the case of Mukhammad Ali Nurkulov, a Kyrgyz citizen accused of financing and supporting terrorist activity, LRT reported. Nurkulov, who had a temporary residence permit in Lithuania, was detained at Vilnius Airport in March.

Public Security Service officers brought him to the hearing. He communicated with the court through a Russian-language interpreter and was represented by Kaunas lawyer Aušra Ručienė.

Nurkulov told the court that he was ready to testify and admitted the charges. He said he sincerely regretted what had happened, understood his responsibility and asked the court to give him an opportunity to return to normal life.

“I never wanted to harm the Republic of Lithuania, its citizens or its security. I had never been convicted before,” he said.

Nurkulov said he had studied medicine and wanted to help people, but had taken academic leave because of his circumstances. He officially worked as a long-distance truck driver. He added that his family in Kyrgyzstan was hoping for a humane decision from the Lithuanian court and was deeply distressed by the case.

The preliminary investigation was conducted by the Financial Crime Investigation Service in cooperation with the State Security Department. Investigators allege that Nurkulov, who was born in 1977, holds radical Islamic views and supports Hamas. They say he made several transactions from his personal cryptocurrency wallet in the summer of 2025 to support Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassem Brigades.

The State Security Department said on Facebook that Nurkulov was charged under provisions of the Criminal Code concerning criminal liability for offences established in international treaties and the financing and support of terrorist activity. The department said he had admitted his guilt.

Financial Crime Investigation Service officers detained Nurkulov on March 21 after he arrived from Istanbul. At the request of a prosecutor from the Prosecutor General’s Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department, the court initially ordered the strictest preventive measure, detention for three months. The detention period was later extended.

Judge Nida Vigelienė added documents submitted by the defence to the case file. The documents, issued by Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office and its Agency for Religious Affairs, state that there is no record in Kyrgyz registers of Hamas being designated as extremist or terrorist, or being banned in Kyrgyzstan.

Nurkulov told the court that he had not known the organisation was banned in the European Union.

Under Lithuanian law, a person who knowingly collects, accumulates or provides funds, property or other material support for terrorist crimes or terrorist organisations can be sentenced to between three and 10 years in prison.