A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced militant Ali Taziev (call sign Magas) to a third life sentence in connection with the crimes committed in 2009-2010 by the Caucasus Emirate terrorist organization banned in Russia. According to investigators, then its participants, under the general leadership of Taziev and other persons, blew up a traffic police post and a car parked nearby in Ingushetia, as well as fired at a cafe and committed an encroachment on the lives of servicemen of a military unit. As a result, more than 130 law enforcement officers and the military were injured, and the buildings of the cafe and the military unit were also damaged. Earlier, Taziev received two life sentences for a series of terrorist attacks and an attempt on the life of the former head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
The Southern District Military Court announced the verdict in the third criminal case against militant Ali Taziev. He was found guilty of organizing a criminal community, banditry, murder, encroachment on the lives of law enforcement officers, deliberate destruction or damage to property, illegal manufacture and storage of weapons (part 1 of article 210; part 1 of article 209; paragraph “a” , “e”, “g”, “z” part 2 of article 105; article 317 (four criminal episodes); part 2 of article 167 (four crimes); part 3 of article 222 and part 3 of article 223 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Taziev was sentenced to life imprisonment with detention in a special regime correctional colony.
According to investigators, in April-May 2008, the militant entered the banned terrorist organization “Emirate of the Caucasus” and was engaged in planning terrorist attacks and monitoring their implementation. In particular, he selected the perpetrators and was responsible for the material support of crimes. As Kommersant was told in the press service of the court, according to the case file, Taziev financed gang leaders with money and property, which were systematically transferred by entrepreneurs and commercial organizations.
Taziyev was accused of committing a number of crimes in Ingushetia between September 2009 and June 2010, under his leadership, members of the Caucasus Emirate and the Magas gang. In particular, the militants attacked traffic police posts in the Nazran district three times. “As a result, nine police officers and eleven military personnel were injured, and four people, including two civilians who happened to be at the scene of the crime, were killed,” said Elena Usacheva, prosecutor of the main department of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation for the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District.
In December 2009, members of the gang led by Ali Taziyev on the M-29 “Kavkaz” highway blew up an armored personnel carrier of military unit No. 3918 of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as a result of which four servicemen in the car were injured.
In total, 131 people were recognized as victims in the criminal case of Ali Taziev. Ali Taziyev himself pleaded not guilty. In the debate, the defense side insisted that his guilt had not been proven.
As Kommersant reported earlier, from 2011 to 2020, more than 20 members of the criminal community led by Taziev were convicted. The militants were sentenced to terms ranging from seven years to life imprisonment.
Currently, Taziev is already serving a life sentence by the North Caucasus Military District Court (now the Southern District Military Court). In October 2013, the court convicted him of organizing the attack on Nazran in June 2004, when 98 people were killed, most of whom were law enforcement officers, and 113 were injured, as well as for blowing up a regular bus in Nevinnomyssk in 2007. As a result of the explosion of a bomb packed in a juice bag, three passengers were killed in the cabin of the Ikarus, and another 17 were injured. The court also considered the fact that Taziev organized an assassination attempt on the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov in 2009 and an explosion in the police department in the city of Nazran and the Nazran district of Ingushetia in the same 2009 as proven. In total, according to the investigation, as a result of the terrorist attacks organized by Magas, 26 people were killed and another 308 were injured of varying severity.
In July 2015, the court, despite the defendant’s statements that pressure was exerted on him during the investigation, sentenced Ali Taziev to life for the second time.