On January 17, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced four residents of Ingushetia who were found guilty of participating in the international terrorist organization “Islamic State” and of planning to blow up the buildings of police units in the city of Sunzha. Three of the convicts were minors at the time of the crime.
The telegram channel “Rozysk” spoke about the details of the case. Ingushetia", which, judging by the content, is a product of the security forces. According to him, in August 2021, 17-year-old Magomed Merzhoev and Mikail Meyriev, “being adherents of the radical movement in Islam,” “gave an oath of allegiance to the leader of the MTO “IS”, after which they planned to blow up the administrative buildings of the Office of Private Security of the VNG of Russia in the Republic of Ingushetia and a separate PPSP battalion of the intermunicipal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Sunzhensky”. In addition, on their social networks, these individuals posted materials aimed at justifying terrorist activities,” and also “recruited their peer Islam Ozdoev and 19-year-old Akhmed Makhloev into their lost cell, who began to provide them with “complicit assistance.”
The most severe punishment - 9 years in prison - was assigned to Merzhoev, who was found guilty of possessing weapons, manufacturing explosives, participating in a terrorist organization, facilitating terrorist activities, justifying terrorism, preparing a terrorist attack and other serious crimes. Meyriev was charged with fewer episodes and given 8 years. Makhloev and Ozdoev received 5 years each as accomplices in the activities of a terrorist organization.
The crime was discovered by employees of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Ingushetia together with the FSB of Russia, reports “Rozysk Ingushetia”. It is interesting that on September 6, 2021, when reporting the initiation of a criminal case against the same persons, Search Ingushetia did not mention any details about the preparation of the terrorist attack, limiting itself to general phrases about terrorist activities.