FSB officers detained two former Ingush judges in a bribery case, Kommersant and Interfax claim, citing sources.
We are talking about the former chairman of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia Sergei Boychuk and the former chairman of the Magassky District Court of Ingushetia Magomed Aushev, who also headed the Council of Judges of Ingushetia. Boychuk was detained in Krasnodar, and Aushev in Ingushetia.
In addition to them, security forces detained in Lugansk Magas developer Adam Kartoev, suspected of giving bribes. He “signed a contract with a paramilitary structure” and “combined service with business related to construction” in the occupied territories, writes Kommersant.
The investigation connects Adam Kartoev with Batalkhajin clan. Itscontributedon the list of terrorist organizations due to the verdict of investigator Ilez Mutaliev, who was found guilty of aiding the murderers of the head of the Ingush Center “E” Ibragim Eldzharkiev. The murder case itself has been heard in a military court in Rostov since the end of 2022; its defendants were also called Batalkhadzhintsy.
Kommersant cites several bribes that investigators accuse judges of. Thus, according to their version, in 2021, Kartoev’s company transferred to Judge Aushev a parking space in an elite house in Magas worth 600 thousand rubles, and he instructed Boychuk to commute the sentence in the case of distributing child pornography. In another case, the Investigative Committee accuses Aushev of ordering a lenient sentence in 2022 for Kartoev himself and his father Magomed in cases of possession of a grenade and weapons.
According to Kommersant, all three detainees were supposed to delivered to Moscow, to the Basmanny District Court, but by the time of publication the news of their arrest had not been announced. They are charged with articles on bribery (290 and 291 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of power (286 of the Criminal Code), the publication claims. There are no terrorist articles in the case at the moment.
The head of the Ingush Center “E” was shot in Moscow
Judges Sergei Boychuk and Magomed Aushev were deprived of their powers at the end of 2023 under the pretext of disciplinary violations. The decision to resign Boychuk in December was made by the qualification board of Ingushetia, and Aushev was deprived of his powers by the highest qualification board in November.
At the meeting where the decision was made, 67-year-old Aushev called himself a victim of FSB intrigues. Aushev said that he was repeatedly approached by “representatives of the special services” regarding questions about “making some decisions.” They “control all legal proceedings” and “they take any refusal painfully,” the judge added, without directly mentioning the name of the department.
In May 2023, Sergei Boychuk applied to become a judge of the Zaporozhye Regional Court in the occupied territory Ukraine. He didn't pass the competition.