The Malgobek City Court of Ingushetia sent Leila Gatagazheva, who had previously been placed under house arrest, to a pre-trial detention center. She will be in custody until February 23.
The 21-year-old mother of two is accused of collaborating with ISIS (a banned terrorist organization) for nearly seven years. At the same time, she is being held accountable for the same acts for which she served a sentence of 5 years in prison in Iraq. By the time she was extradited to the Russian Federation, the girl had overstayed her sentence by almost a year.
In 2014, Gatagazheva’s mother and her children left Ingushetia for Syria. When Leila turned 13, she was forcibly married, and in 2017, her husband was killed.
According to investigators, 15-year-old Gatagazheva joined the ISIS unit in Syria in the fall of 2016. There she allegedly performed economic functions and provided financial assistance.
The criminal case is based on the testimony of a single classified witness. The defense cannot review the materials while the investigation is ongoing. Also, law enforcement agencies wanted to force Leila to cooperate using psychological pressure and threats, noted her lawyer Ramina Labazanova.
