On Friday, Moscow’s Dorogomilovsky District Court sentenced former Supreme Court of Ingushetia Judge Sergei Boichuk to seven years in prison in a bribery case involving payments from lawyers.
Also convicted were lawyers Sergei Tabuev, from North Ossetia, and Israpil Bokov, from Rostov Region, as well as Boichuk’s wife, Natalya Lonert, whom investigators consider to have acted as an intermediary in the money transfers.
In addition to the seven-year sentence in a general-regime penal colony, Boichuk was fined ₽7 million ($95,000) and banned from holding positions in public service for seven years after his release. Lawyers Tabuev and Bokov received prison terms of two and a half years and two years, respectively, while Lonert was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine. However, enforcement of her sentence was postponed until her child reaches the age of 14.
According to investigators, in the spring of 2023, Tabuev represented two Vietnamese nationals who had been ordered deported from Russia by the Karabulak City Court in Ingushetia for violating migration legislation.
Seeking a more favourable outcome for his clients, Tabuev allegedly approached Lonert and offered a bribe of ₽100,000 ($1,400).
Following this, the Supreme Court of Ingushetia ruled that the two Vietnamese nationals could leave Russia independently rather than under escort.
A criminal case related to this episode was opened in 2025. Prosecutors had requested a 14-year prison sentence for Boichuk.
After the verdict was announced, Boichuk told the court that he disagreed with the ruling and intended to appeal. The sentence handed down to Boichuk has not yet entered into legal force and may be appealed before a higher court.
In Ingushetia, Boichuk is also known for being among the judges involved in proceedings against participants in the mass protests over the border agreement between Ingushetia and Chechnya. Those demonstrations became the largest political protests in the republic’s modern history.
Volodymyr Soboliev
In autumn 2018, thousands of Ingush residents took to the streets of Magas after then-Head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov signed an agreement with Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov establishing a new administrative border between the two regions. Many protesters believed that Ingushetia was losing part of its territory. Following the mass demonstrations, the authorities dismantled the protest camp and launched criminal prosecutions against a number of protest leaders and activists.
The so-called ‘Ingush case’ became one of the largest political prosecutions in the North Caucasus in recent years. Public figures, elders, and activists were convicted. Russian and international human rights organisations repeatedly described the prosecutions as politically motivated.
Boichuk personally upheld a lower court decision ordering the detention of Akhmed Barakhoev, Barakh Chemurziev, and Musa Malsagov. At the time, lawyer Magomed Bekov described the ruling as biased.
Boichuk’s name also appeared in another high-profile investigation. After the Qualification Board of Judges of Ingushetia stripped him of his judicial powers in March 2024, investigators accused him and former Magas District Court Chair Magomed Aushev of accepting a bribe from property developer Adam Kartoev.
Investigators alleged that after receiving the bribe, they issued rulings in favour of individuals linked to the religious group of Batal-Hadzhi Belkhoroev, which is designated as a terrorist organisation and banned in Russia. Following his arrest, Boichuk denied any wrongdoing. There is no publicly available information regarding a verdict in that case.
