Khasan Yandiyev, deputy chairman of Ingushetia's Supreme Court, was driving his Mercedes through the town of Karabulak when the assailants fired automatic weapons at his vehicle, a law enforcement official told RIA-Novosti.
The gunmen fled immediately and Yandiyev died on the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, the law enforcement source told the news agency.
Yandiyev has presided over a number of high-profile trials of local rebels and officials charged with corruption, and investigators believe that he was murdered because of his work, the source said.
Ingushetia is one of the country's poorest and most violence-torn provinces. It has been rocked by a number of high-profile crimes, including a 2004 raid by local rebels and a series of killings of ethnic Russians. The local insurgency network has remained strong despite the efforts by law enforcement agencies to dismantle it.
Also on Sunday, police in the neighboring region of Dagestan killed a local rebel leader.
Ismail Yangizbiyev was trapped by local law enforcement agents overnight in a forest in Dagestan's Khasavyurt district. The rebel leader opened fire when he realized he had been detected, RIA-Novosti reported.
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