Former judges from Ingushetia were detained on suspicion of corruption

The FSB officers detained the former judge of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia Sergey Boychuk and the former chairman of the Magas district court Magomed Aushev on charges of providing assistance to representatives of the religious brotherhood of Batal-Hadzhi Belkhoroev (the Russian authorities have recognized the Batalkhadzhintsev Combat Wing as a terrorist organization) for bribery. This is reported by Kommersant.

According to the investigation, the judges received a bribe from businessman Adam Kartoev, after which they made a number of decisions in favor of the Batalzhajin residents. It is not specified which specific representatives of the brotherhood we are talking about and how exactly the judges helped them.

Magomed Aushev was detained in Ingushetia, Sergey Boychuk was detained in Krasnodar. Adam Kartoev was detained in Luhansk under Russian control. Kartoev, according to the special services, was going to combine construction business in the occupied territory of Ukraine with military service, since he signed a contract with an unspecified paramilitary structure. Former judge Sergey Boychuk, in turn, asked to become one of the leaders of the Russian court in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region.

It is noted that Kartoev is suspected of giving a bribe, Ausheva of receiving a bribe and obstructing justice, Boychuk is also accused of obstructing justice and exceeding official powers.

At the end of last year, both judges were prematurely deprived of their status, as reported, for committing disciplinary violations, Kavkaz.Realii notes. “Kommersant” claims that all three detainees should be taken to Moscow, where the court will send them under arrest, apparently to “Lefortovo”, since the FSB is conducting the case.

• Batalkhadzhintsy is a religious group in Ingushetia, its members consider themselves followers of the Sufi sheikh Batal-Khaja Belkhoroev, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This is one of the most influential and closed communities in Ingushetia, about 20 thousand people are included in the brotherhood of Batalkhadzhintsev.
• In February 2023, the FSB, according to the court’s decision, included the “Fighting Wing of Batalkhadzhintsev” in the list of terrorist organizations. Now all persons participating in the activities of the group and helping them are subject to criminal liability. The members of the religious brotherhood themselves believe that the decision was made with the aim of simplifying the persecution of the followers of Sheikh Batal-Khaja, and declare pressure on Muslims in Russia.
• Until 2019, the influence of the Batalkhadzhints remained – it was believed that they are close to the former head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and are ready to integrate into the socio-political structure of the region. At the same time, members of the brotherhood were suspected of involvement in high-profile crimes, for example, the attack on a bus with journalists and human rights defenders in 2016. In the report of the human rights organization “Mashr” with a reference to the publication Russiangate, it was stated that the person who ordered the attack was the deputy of the State Duma from Chechnya, Adam Delymkhanov, and the executors were Ibrahim Belkhoroev’s people.” Then the minibus was burned, and everyone who was in it was beaten.
• Some Batalkhadzhin soldiers participated in the war with Ukraine as part of the Kadyrov special forces “Akhmat”. Their BEAV detachment – the Batalkhadzhina rapid reaction detachment – consists of 31 people. All of them underwent training at the base of the “Russian Special Forces University” in Gudermes, after which they went to the front. In this way, the members of the brotherhood want to escape from the conflict with the employees of the security forces, which began after the murder of the head of the Ingush Center “E”, according to experts polled by Kavkaz.Realii.