Former senior prosecutor of North Ossetia drunk beat his cohabitant with a poker and received 10 years in prison

The lawyer of the former prosecutor from North Ossetia Igor Cheldiev, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case of the death of his common-law wife Irina Bozhenko, insists that his client’s actions did not constitute a crime and intends to appeal the court’s decision. Irina Bozhenko’s sister called the verdict fair.

As the “Caucasian Knot” wrotetoday the Prigorodny Court of North Ossetia sentenced the former prosecutor Igor Cheldiev, who was accused of murdering the civil wife Irina Bozhenko. The court reclassified the article under which Cheldiev was charged with a softer one – the article “murder” was replaced with an article on “deliberate infliction of grievous bodily harm.” Cheldiev was sentenced to 10 years in a strict regime colony.

In February 2020, investigators detained former prosecutor Igor Cheldiev in North Ossetia. On the site near the house of his common-law wife, the body of a woman was found. Cheldiev was arrested on charges of her murder. The former prosecutor said that his common-law wife fell and hit her head, but the experts made a preliminary conclusion that death was caused by a blow from a fireplace poker. Later, Cheldiev wrote a confession.

Today’s court session was attended only by participants in the process and the press. The prosecution and Irina Bozhenko’s sister Kristina Anokhina were not present at the verdict. Before the start of the trial, Cheldiev made a loud remark to the cameraman of the local media and asked not to film himself, the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent, who was present at the announcement of the verdict, reports.

The court ruled that Cheldiev had inflicted serious bodily harm on Irina Bozhenko, incompatible with life, and did not take measures to provide her with medical assistance. Some time after her injuries, Bozhenko died. Two local residents helped Cheldiev to bury the body at his summer cottage. In connection with the expiration of the statute of limitations, they escaped criminal punishment, the court decided to impose a fine of 100 thousand rubles on them.

The defense plans to appeal the verdict, Cheldiev’s lawyer Alan Anikeev said in a commentary to the media after the verdict was announced.

“We will insist on the termination of the criminal case due to the absence of a crime event. I insist that the crime does not take place. The causes of death have not been established, she could have died in the same way from hepatitis and the diseases she has, …) from acute alcohol intoxication. (…) Thanks to the judge for switching from Article 105 (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Murder” – note of the “Caucasian Knot”), because Article 105 is not close there,” he said Alan Anikeev.

When asked why Cheldiev did not immediately contact the police when he discovered that his wife was dead, the lawyer replied that there could be many reasons for this, one of which is fear. Cheldiev also planned to be reinstated in the law enforcement agencies, according to the lawyer, and was afraid that something could interfere with this. Cheldiev’s decision not to contact the police, but to bury the body in the garden, Anikeev called “strangeness.” “Yes, this is somehow strange, but on the basis of this strangeness one cannot condemn a person. A person made a mistake (…). Well, who is not mistaken?” the lawyer noted.

The sister of the murdered Irina Bozhenko, Kristina Anokhina, told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent that she considers the verdict fair.

Irina Bozhenko repeatedly complained about domestic violence friends and relatives, Kristina Anokhina told the “Caucasian Knot” in January 2021. Agunda Bekoeva, co-founder of the Khotae movement, noted at the same time that the problem of domestic violence is aggravated in the families of security forces, who feel they are not punished.

* On March 21, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow banned Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) from operating in Russia in connection with extremist activities.

Igor Cheldiev beat a cohabitant and rushed at her with a gun

The original of this material

© “Kavkaz.Realities”, 03/05/2021, Threw at her with a gun. In Ossetia, the ex-prosecutor is on trial for the murder of a cohabitant

Anastasia Lidovskaya

On March 11, the Prigorodny District Court of North Ossetia will begin hearings on the case of 59-year-old ex-prosecutor Igor Cheldiev. He is accused of killing and burying his cohabitant, 45-year-old Irina Bozhenko, in his garden a year ago. The case involves two friends of Cheldiev, residents of the village of Mikhailovskoye Oleg Kaitmazov and Alan Utarov. They are accused of covering up a crime. Court hearings have been postponed many times: first because of the pandemic, and then because of a change in Cheldiev’s lawyer. All this time, he was in custody in a pre-trial detention center, and his friends were under house arrest.

According to investigators, the murder took place on January 3, 2020. That evening, Cheldiev and Bozhenko were drinking in the country house of the first in the village of Koban and had a strong quarrel, as a result of which the ex-prosecutor began to beat his cohabitant. In the morning, Cheldiev realized that she had died from her injuries, and decided to cover her tracks. He called his friends and asked them to come. Already on the spot, they saw the dead Bozhenko and, under threats, agreed to help him bury the corpse in the backyard.

On February 10, worried sister Bozhenko turned to law enforcement agencies: Irina had not been in touch for a long time, and her common-law husband said that he also did not know about her whereabouts. However, during the search on February 13, investigators found a small mound near the fence of Cheldiev’s house. It was the grave of the missing.

In his pre-trial testimony, Cheldiev said that he did not remember the details of that day, as he was drunk. However, he insisted that he did not kill Bozhenko, but only “hit her face three or four times with the palm of his hand,” after which “she fell and beat her head against the wall and the battery.” According to the ex-prosecutor, the quarrel began because Irina left and did not celebrate the New Year with him. He reproached his cohabitant for this, in response she insulted him. Then he had other versions of what was happening, including jealousy. But he denied any involvement in the murder.

However, the investigation does not regard the inflicted beatings as death by negligence. The forensic examination report states that on the day of death, judging by the amount of ethyl alcohol in the body, Bozhenko was really very drunk. But she died from traumatic shock, which developed due to injuries to the head, torso and limbs. Multiple bruises, abrasions, bruises and hemorrhages, cerebral edema, a fracture of five ribs, broken kidneys, and a stab wound in the area of ​​the shoulder blades were recorded on the victim’s body. According to the examination, Bozhenko was beaten with fists, feet and, possibly, with some other blunt objects. Injuries were found on both of her hands and it was concluded that during the beating she tried to hide behind them from the blows. The time of Irina’s death could not be established due to the fact that the woman’s corpse had lain in the ground for more than a month.

The Kavkaz.Realii correspondent spoke with the sister of the deceased, Kristina Anokhina. She describes Irina as “a soft, balanced person who was difficult to piss off.” She was not married to anyone, but had three children from different men: a 24-year-old daughter, an 18-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. All of them grew up in the families of their fathers. She did not have common children with Cheldiev.

“She died on January 2-3. But I think it was on the 2nd, since that was when she had her last outgoing call. She called her friend, but she did not pick up the phone. When she called back, Irina did not answer. The friend reproaches herself, thinks she could have saved her life,” Christina says.

According to her, the relationship between the cohabitants was not the most peaceful: “Drunkenly, Cheldiev rushed at her with a gun, beat her.” But she did not write a statement to the police against him, although her friends repeatedly urged her to do so.

“How many times I told her when she complained, they say, leave him and move to us in Rostov,” recalls the interlocutor. “You will start a new life, get a job. we will kick her out, she will remain on the street. Ira said: “You think that I live here in chocolate, but you can’t even imagine what I can stand.” At the same time, when we came with my daughter, then [​Чельдиев] He was very hospitable, calling to him all the time. And the table will set, and talk, and smile. I didn’t think he was capable of what he did.”

Cheldiev and Bozhenko met for nine years. And when the man’s father died in 2018, they began to live together.

“She was brutally killed, there was no living place on her body,” Kristina sums up. “I read the conclusion, and it became scary. Knife, fist, kick. “They quarreled. He hit her, she fell, and he went to bed. And in the morning he found her dead and buried. He said later that he went to her grave, talked to her. In her room, she put her favorite flowers and watched her favorite movie. She loved Sled on Channel Five.”

The fact that he was not alone was learned from the fact that there was very hard, hard-to-dig soil on the territory of the house, she adds. Then he admitted that his friends helped him dig a hole for the grave.

“According to their testimony, he generally called them to bring cola and drink with him. Cheldiev met them completely naked: in shoes and a sheepskin coat. He said: “Come on, I’ll show you something, you’ll go nuts” and led them inside. And this is “something” was the corpse of Ira,” says Christina.

When the sister began to worry about the fact that Bozhenko did not get in touch and contacted the police, Cheldiev began to claim that she had left, and to confirm, he burned all the belongings of his cohabitant: “He said that he did not know where Ira was. Here, they say “I packed my things, said, to hell with you and Ossetia, I don’t want to live here anymore, and left. She allegedly said that she was heading to Pyatigorsk, and suggested that everyone look there. She, like, would also go there in search. I believed” .

Before her death, Bozhenko told her sister that she and Cheldiev were arranging some kind of real estate, but she was not allowed to say which one. Christina suggests that the conflict of cohabitants could happen on this basis. But the investigation does not consider this version.

“Igor’s defenders have appeared. They are spreading information on the network that the examination was fabricated and he is not guilty. Commentators agree that, yes, a person with such experience in the prosecutor’s office could not bury a corpse in his yard. It’s somehow idiotic” , says Irina.

Cheldiev’s lawyer, Igor Kuptsov, has so far refrained from official comments and told Kavkaz.Realii that he needs to discuss this with his client. He expressed his personal opinion briefly: “In any situation, compromises must be found, everyone in this life makes mistakes. And this is my position as a lawyer.”