Eight South Ossetian police officers have been found guilty of abuse of power and negligence in the high-profile murder of Inal Dzhabiev in police custody in 2020.
The Tskhinvali (Tskhinval) City Court delivered the sentences on 2 October, Thursday.
According to the court ruling, the accused Dzhumber Bibilov, Andrei Dzhioev, and Alan Bagaev have been remanded in custody. Bibilov was sentenced to five years in prison, while Dzhioev and Bagaev received three years and 10 months each. Time spent in detention has been taken into account.
As official news agency Res reported, the sentences for Sergei Kozonov and Irbeg Slanov were not enforced, as they had already served the terms in practice. Two other defendants — Zauru Gogichaev and Marat Khugaev — were fined ₽100,000 ($1,200) each, but they were released from payment due to the statute of limitations.
None of the defendants were found guilty of directly causing Inal Dzhabiev’s death. The main charges related to other victims, in particular Gersan Kulumbegov and Nikolai Tskhovrebov.
The court found Dzhumber Bibilov guilty of abuse of power involving violence. Dzhioev, Bagaev, Kozonov, and Slanov were found guilty of abuse of power; in addition, Dzhioev, Bagaev, and Slanov were also convicted of negligence. Gogichaev and Khugaev were found guilty of negligence only. The verdict can be appealed to the Supreme Court within 15 days.
Representatives of the victims expressed dissatisfaction with the court’s decision.
‘We are not satisfied with the verdict’, Fatima Gataganova, a representative of the victims, told the media outlet Sapa.
Lawyers for the convicted also announced their intention to file appeals. One of them, Alan Bazaev, stated that he would challenge the verdict in higher courts.
Following the announcement of the verdicts, relatives of the convicted gathered in the central square of Tskhinvali to express their dissatisfaction with the rulings.
Inal Dzhabiev died on 28 August 2020. According to the investigation, he was brutally beaten in a temporary detention facility, where he had been held on suspicion of attacking the head of the South Ossetian Interior Ministry. Another detainee, Nikolai Tskhovrebov, was also beaten in the same facility.
Dzhabiev’s death sparked public outcry, contributed to a political crisis, and was partially a factor in Anatoly Bibilov’s defeat in the 2022 presidential election.
Among those accused in Dzhabiev’s case was Atsamaz Naniev, who had been released under a travel restriction. According to the victims, he left South Ossetia and now serves in the military police in North Ossetia. Other defendants included former Interior Minister Igor Naniev and former Prosecutor General Uruzmag Dzhagaev.
After his inauguration, the President of South Ossetia, Alan Gagloev, emphasised that the Inal Dzhabiev case must be brought ‘to a logical legal conclusion’. The judicial process in the Dzhabiev case began in November 2023.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
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