A native of Ingushetia has been released from a migration prison in Croatia.

Magomed-Amin Gatagazhev, a native of Ingushetia who spent eight months in a migration prison in Croatia, avoided extradition to Russia and was released, having received legal status in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, 19-year-old Magomed-Amin Gatagazhev was detained in the fall of 2025 while crossing the border between Bosnia and Croatia based on information from Russian security forces. In January, 50 asylum seekers from Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, held with Gatagazhev in the migration prison in Ezevo, Croatia, announced a hunger strike in his support – they demanded that Gatagazhev's deportation not be allowed and protested the inhumane treatment he suffered at the hands of prison staff. Getagazhev himself also went on a hunger strike, but in early February he required medical attention. He was unable to continue his hunger strike and called on his fellow countrymen to end the protest.

Magomed-Amin Gatagazhev was released on June 9 and moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina to be with his family, human rights activist Roza Dunaeva reported today. Bosnian authorities granted him and his family asylum.

According to Dunaeva, the legal grounds for Gatagazhev's extradition were lifted back in April, but he remained in custody for another two months. Human rights activists feared his transfer through Serbia or another third country and subsequent extradition to Russia, according to a post on her Facebook page*.

The human rights activist posted a photo of the released Gatagazhev on social media—the young man stands outside an administrative building, under the flags of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Magomed-Amin Gatagazhev is the brother of Leyla Gatagazheva, who was extradited to Russia from Iraq in June 2023. Leyla Gatagazheva, born in 2001, is a mother of two. She was accused of aiding terrorist activity and participating in an illegal armed group in Syria. Relatives took her from Ingushetia to the Middle East at the age of 12 and married her off there when she turned 13. She has already served a five-year sentence in an Iraqi prison on a similar charge of working for militants.

The defense sought to have her criminal prosecution in Russia dropped, arguing that there was no evidence of her guilt. The terrorism charges against Leyla were subsequently dropped.