19:45, 14 August 2026

The former mayor of Sunzha has found himself among the accused in the assassination attempt on a law enforcement officer.

The former head of Sunzha in Ingushetia has been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of the former head of the Karabulak Department of Internal Affairs, Ilez Nalgiev, who was previously convicted for torturing a detainee. Along with him, two direct executors of the assassination attempt have been arrested.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", at the end of July, law enforcement detained three suspects in the attempted murder in Ingushetia, all of whom are in custody. This concerns the assassination attempt on the former head of the Karabulak Department of Internal Affairs, Ilez Nalgiev, which took place in February 2025.

On February 16, 2025, it became known that as a result of an attack in Sunzha, the former head of the Karabulak Department of Internal Affairs, Ilez Nalgiev, who was previously convicted for torturing a detainee, was injured. The attacker fired several times at Nalgiev and fled; his car was found burned in the village of Surkhakhi. Nalgiev was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the leg.

The appellate court confirmed the legality of the detention of those accused of the attempted murder of Ilez Nalgiev, the press service of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia reported today on its Telegram channel.

The Magas District Court on July 30 arrested 48-year-old Islam Derbichev and 47-year-old Timur Merzhoev for two months. In addition to the attempted murder, they are charged with illegal arms trafficking. The defense of the accused appealed their arrest, but the appellate court of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia refused to satisfy the appeals, leaving the detention order unchanged, according to the publication.

According to the court, on February 15, 2025, in the territory of the "Terrace" restaurant in the city of Sunzha, Naksthoev and Merzhoev, acting in collusion with Derbichev, shot at Nalgiev with firearms, resulting in a penetrating gunshot wound to the thigh. The attackers fled the scene of the crime.

Investigators identified three suspects. One of them, Issa Naksthoev, was detained and arrested in June of this year, while Islam Derbichev and Timur Merzhoev were arrested at the end of July. They are accused of attempted murder committed by a group of individuals in collusion and illegal acquisition and possession of firearms.

One of the accused is the former mayor of Sunzha, Islam Derbichev. The attackers demanded that the former police officer repay a large debt, as noted by "Interfax-South" citing sources in law enforcement.

Islam Derbichev headed the rural settlement of Ordzhonikidzevskoye in January 2015, which was first transformed into the urban settlement of Sunzha and later into the city of Sunzha.

On May 17, 2015, a vote was held in Ordzhonikidzevskoye regarding the transformation of the municipality's status from rural to urban. 67.56% of voters cast their votes "for" the change of the status of the settlement, and among the four proposed names for the new city, the majority of voters chose the name Sunzha. In September 2016, 78.09% of voters in the Sunzhensky district voted in a referendum for the transformation of the urban-type settlement of Sunzha into an urban district.

Derbichev left the post of city head in July 2017, and the then head of the republic, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, thanked him for his work, as reported by the newspaper "Ingushetia".

Ilez Nalgiev was sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison for torturing a detainee. In January of the same year, an assassination attempt was made on him in the village of Surkhakhi in the Nazran district. The explosive device detonated as he approached the gates of the house where he lived.

Translated automatically via OpenAI from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/425769