Former Ingush MP Yakub Belkhoroev is being asked to receive a new prison sentence

The Prosecutor's Office has requested a 12-year prison sentence in a general regime penal colony for Yakub Belkhoroev, the former head of the Ingush Social Insurance Fund, in Moscow's Presnensky Court. He is accused of embezzling nearly 14 million rubles in budget funds, distributed among close associates under the guise of insurance payments for fictitious industrial accidents.

A criminal case has been opened on five counts of embezzlement on an especially large scale (Part 4, Article 160 of the Russian Criminal Code). This could be the second sentence for 69-year-old Belkhoroev, who is reportedly a leader of the Batal-Khadzhi vird and a former United Russia MP. Previously, in November 2022, the Moscow City Court sentenced him to nine years in prison for embezzling over 23 million rubles. The sentence in the previous case expires in 2027.

Several members of the Batal-Hadji vird, which Yakub Belkhoroev led after the death of Sultan Belkhoroev, are under investigation, and the organization's militant wing has been designated as terrorist and banned in Russia. However, the vird itself denies any involvement in the crimes.

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