The court's press service justified the ruling in two sentences: it said the organization's goals and actions were aimed at promoting, justifying and supporting terrorism, and that members of the community had committed crimes under Articles 205, 205.1, 205.2, 205.4 and 208 of the Criminal Code. Those articles cover a terrorist attack, aiding terrorist activity, justifying terrorism, organizing a terrorist community, and participation in an illegal armed formation.
On the same day, the Federal Security Service (FSB) issued a statement linking the community to a series of high-profile crimes. According to the security service, the Batalkhadzhi "armed terrorists with automatic weapons and ammunition" who attacked Crocus City Hall, where 147 people were killed and more than 300 injured, according to FSB data. The agency also alleged that members of the community were involved in the 2009 bombing of the Nevsky Express train (27 killed), the June 2004 attack on government bodies in Ingushetia (78 killed), and the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops.
The FSB further claims the community aided "terrorist and extremist formations" fighting against Russian troops in Ukraine, and that since the 1990s it had interacted with the Islamic State and the Caucasus Emirate. There is no independent confirmation of these claims.
The Batalkhadzhi, also known as Belkhoroyevtsy or "batlaks," are a religious community in Ingushetia. Its followers consider themselves the spiritual heirs of the Sufi sheikh Batal-Hadji Belkhoroyev, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is one of the most influential and closed communities in the republic: according to various estimates, the brotherhood numbers between five and 20 thousand people.
After the 2019 killing of Ibragim Eldzharkiyev, head of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ingushetia Interior Ministry, dozens of community members became subjects of criminal cases. In July 2020, the leader of the Batalkhadzhi, Yakub Belkhoroyev, was arrested; he was later stripped of his mandate as a deputy of the Ingushetia People's Assembly and expelled from United Russia. In the autumn of 2022, the so-called fighting wing of the followers of Batal-Hadji Belkhoroyev was designated a terrorist organization, and in 2023 the FSB added it to the corresponding list.
In December 2024, Izvestia, citing its own source, reported that those detained for aiding the Crocus terrorists belonged to the Batalkhadzhi community.