Collective risk: a Nazran judge is suspected of collusion with Batalkhadzhin residents

The Higher Qualification Collegium of Judges has agreed to initiate criminal proceedings against the judge of the Nazranovsky District Court of Ingushetia, Alikhan Yaryzhev. He faces liability for releasing from real terms two members of the Batalkhadzhin religious community, Adam and Mukhajir Kartoev, who were accused of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. The militant wing of the Batalkhadzhins is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and is considered to be involved in the terrorist attack in Crocus and a number of other high-profile crimes. Alikhan Yaryzhev did not admit his guilt, and believes that his sentences to Kartoev were "objective and fair". Details of the case - in the material "Izvestia".

What Judge Alikhan Yaryzhev is accused of

On February 11, the Supreme Qualification Collegium of Judges (SQCJ) satisfied the submission of the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin on the removal of immunity and initiation of criminal proceedings against the judge of Nazranovsky district court of Ingushetia Alikhan Yaryzhev.

Investigators suspect him of handing down knowingly unjust sentences to two Batalkhadjins. This is a religious community whose members have at various times been accused of political murders, the bombing of the Nevsky Express train in 2009, and are now suspected of supplying weapons and ammunition to the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall.

As a source close to the investigation told Izvestia, law enforcers became interested in Judge Alikhan Yaryzhev because of the sentences of Ingushetia residents Mukhajir and Adam Kartoev. In March 2022, law enforcers searched the Kartoevs' homes and seized a Makarov pistol, ammunition and a grenade from Adam, and a RPG-18 Mukha anti-tank grenade from Mukhajir. They were charged with illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. In the summer of 2022 the case of Kartoevs came to Nazranovsky court, its consideration was entrusted to judge Alikhan Yaryzhev.

In November of the same year, he sentenced Adam Kartoev to five years in prison with a suspended sentence until 2035, and his father Mukhajir in March 2023 - to two years of probation. But the minimum sanction the Criminal Code provides for for illegal possession of explosive devices is six years' imprisonment.

The Fifth Court of Cassation disagreed with both verdicts and in September 2023, on the proposal of the republic's prosecutor, overturned them, returning the cases to the district court for a new trial.

The investigation believes that Alikhan Yaryzhev's sentence was too lenient at the urgent request of Magomed Aushev, then chairman of the Council of Judges of the Republic of Ingushetia. It was he who demanded from the judge that members of the Batalhadzhin community should not be punished to the full extent of the law.

The Batalhadjins and their judicial connections in Ingushetia

The reason for this intercession on the part of a high-ranking representative of the judicial community was Magomed Aushev's close corrupt ties with the Batalhadzhins, a source told Izvestiya.

According to the investigation, in February 2021, for general patronage Aushev received a bribe from Adam Kartoev with a car place worth more than 600 thousand rubles in a house, the developer of which was Kartoev's firm LLC "Techstroy". The car space was registered to Aushev's daughter.

- Since August 2022, Magomed Aushev began to attack Yaryzhev with requests to solve the case with the sentences on the Kartoevs more quickly: to convict them to a punishment that does not involve imprisonment, - said the source.

According to him, Aushev had helped the Batalkhadzhin men to evade justice before.

Thus, Magomed Arapiyev, nephew of Adam Kartoev, was able to avoid a real term of imprisonment under his patronage. In September 2021, a court in Nazran sentenced Arapiyev to three years in prison for distributing child pornography. However, the judge of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, Sergei Boychuk, during the consideration of the appeal, replaced the real punishment with compulsory labor, from which he immediately released him, taking into account the time spent in the pre-trial detention center.

This decision could have been the result of secret negotiations between Judge Boychuk and Magomed Aushev, the source believes.

- On November 16, 2021, from the deliberation room, Boychuk reports to Aushev that he will make a decision that will satisfy everyone. And returning to the courtroom he announces compulsory works," he said.

In March 2024, Adam Kartoev was detained for bribing Magomed Aushev, and Aushev was detained for taking a bribe from Kartoev and interfering in the administration of justice.

On December 4, 2024 in Ingushetia, law enforcers detained four Batalkhadzhin men whom the investigation suspects of complicity in organizing a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow. The detainees were seized live grenades, a pistol, ammunition, and their phones were found correspondence with the ringleaders. One of the detainees turned out to be 27-year-old Mahmud Kartoev, a relative of the very Kartoevs who were released by Judge Yaryzhev.

Backstage decisions

During the session of the All-Union Commission of the Supreme Court of Justice Alikhan Yaryzhev stated that he did not consider his verdicts against the Kartoevs illegal. According to him, in overturning them, the court of cassation instance took into account violations of the Criminal Procedure Code, "but in no way stated the injustice of the verdicts".

- Assessing the totality of circumstances in criminal cases, I was convinced of the justice and objectivity of my verdicts," the judge said.

The investigator read out the testimony of Alikhan Yaryzhev, which he had previously given to the investigation. In them he admits that Magomed Aushev called him and summoned him to his office. And when he arrived, he said that the Kartoevs should be given "the most lenient punishment. Yaryzhev objected that the prosecutor's office would appeal against such decisions, Aushev agreed with him, but said that his son Kartoev should be given a suspended sentence and urged him not to delay this decision. There were also instructions on the second defendant: "Aushev called and said that the verdict should not be announced, because it is impossible to take the father into custody".

At the session of the All-Union Commission of the Supreme Court of Justice Alikhan Yaryzhev did not deny the fact of conversations with Aushev, but assured that the latter did not pressurize him, because he had no influence. At the same time, Yaryzhev said in his testimony that he was afraid that Aushev would "create trouble for him".

- By virtue of the law, Aushev could not conduct inspections against me alone or impose disciplinary penalties on me as a judge," Yaryzhev said. - I did not make any promises to Aushev about the outcome of these criminal cases.

Yaryzhev said he gave Kartoev Jr. a reprieve because he had a child under the age of 14. The judge also described regular threats he received after his convictions and one assassination attempt in 2006, after which he said he lost 80 percent of his eyesight. He hinted, however, that the assassination attempt was made by members of a "terrorist group whose acts are within the jurisdiction of our court." The judge also said that the only evidence the investigation has is Aushev's phone records.

After hearing the arguments of the parties, the panel gave Alexander Bastrykin's consent to initiate criminal proceedings against Alikhan Yaryzhev under two episodes of Part 1 Article 305 of the Criminal Code - "Issuance of a knowingly unjust verdict, decision or other judicial act". The maximum penalty under it is up to four years of imprisonment.