News

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasian Federal District continues to investigate the criminal case on the fact of the armed attack by an organized armed gang led by Basayev on law enforcement officers, military personnel, organizations, and citizens of the Republic of Ingushetia during the night of June 21-22, 2004. The attack resulted in 78 deaths, and 113 people received injuries of varying severity. Moreover, a large quantity of weapons was stolen, and significant damage was inflicted on organizations, enterprises, and local residents through the destruction and damage of property.

Investigators from the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee for the North Caucasian Federal District have fully reconstructed the events of that night. It has been established that Basayev assembled a group of up to 300 participants, comprised of residents of the Chechen and Kabardino-Balkar Republics, the Republic of Ingushetia, other regions of the Russian Federation, and foreign mercenaries.

On June 21, 2004, the gang launched attacks on several locations: the Department of Internal Affairs in the city of Karabulak, the OMON unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia and the mobile unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Karabulak, the Ministry of Internal Affairs building in Nazran, the Nazran District Department of Internal Affairs, the Nazran City Department of Internal Affairs, the material and technical support warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Nazran, the building of the Nazran border detachment, the headquarters of the 3rd battalion of the operational regiment for administrative border protection in Nesterovskaya, Sunzhensky District, a military unit in Troitskaya, Sunzhensky District, the traffic police posts "Volga-16" and "Volga-17," and the roads between Karabulak and Yandare. In addition, armed groups of militants were positioned at major transportation junctions near Nazran and Karabulak, and the villages of Nesterovskaya and Troitskaya to block or delay the arrival of federal response forces. These groups, disguised as law enforcement officers and military personnel, stopped vehicles and checked documents. Those who presented law enforcement or military IDs were immediately executed on the spot and their weapons were stolen.

As part of this criminal investigation, investigators have established the involvement of 131 individuals, of which 68 have already been convicted for participating in the gang, committing acts of terrorism, and attempting to take the lives of military personnel, and have been sentenced to long-term prison terms, including life imprisonment. Criminal proceedings against 52 individuals were terminated due to their deaths—they were liquidated while providing armed resistance, and 11 persons were placed on the wanted list.

Implementing the principle of the inevitability of punishment, investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the North Caucasus Federal District, with the operational support of employees of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, continue to identify the participants in the attack who are evading law enforcement agencies.