Young man who burnt Quran on video and got beaten for it sentenced to 3.5 years

A court in Grozny issued a verdict in the high-profile case of 19-year-old resident of Volgograd Nikita Zhuravel, who on May 4, 2023 recorded a video of him burning the Quran in front of a mosque in Volgograd.

Announcing the verdict, judge Dandaev noted that Zhuravel was found guilty of two counts of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

• insulting the feelings of believers in places intended for worship,
• hooliganism motivated by religious hatred committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.

The young man was sentenced to three years and six months of imprisonment in a general regime colony.

It was this punishment that the state prosecutor requested for Zhuravel during the debate between the parties.

After the verdict was announced, Nikita Zhuravel once again apologised to Muslims for his actions and stated that he was not worried about his safety in the colony.

The convict will serve his sentence in a Muslim region.

The clergy from Grozny who were recognised as victims in the Zhuravel case, called his crime "an act of flagrant insult that caused them deep moral damage.” At the same time, the defendant himself partially admitted guilt at the trial.

During the investigation and trial, Zhuravel said that he burned the Quran on instructions from a Ukrainian curator. According to the young man, he had a negative attitude towards the special military operation in Ukraine.

Someone contacted Zhuravel on Telegram in February 2023 and he started receiving assignments from the user. At first, Nikita Zhuravel was asked to film the movement of special equipment in Volgograd. Afterwards, he painted the inscription "Beware, a killer is in the city today” and distributed leaflets about the evacuation of the population.

In a third act, the Ukrainian curator asked the young man to burn the Quran and promised a reward of 10,000 rubles.

On May 19, 2023, the video of Zhuravel burning the Quran near a mosque in Volgograd was posted on social media. The police quickly identified and detained the young man.

Nikita Zhuravel's crime caused outrage in Chechnya. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, published the footage of a rally in Grozny that took place immediately after Zhuravel's arrest. As many as 60,000 people gather for the rally.

Afterwards, it became known that Nikita Zhuravel would be tried in Grozny. Zhuravel was transferred to the republic, where he was beaten by Kadyrov's son Adam Kadyrov in the autumn of 2023.

Ramzan Kadyrov filmed the act of beating on video and uploaded it on the Internet. The video showed a camouflaged young man punching Nikita Zhuravel and kicking him in the head. The beaten man then fell on the floor while Adam Kadyrov continued beating him.

Ramzan Kadyrov said that he was proud of his son's act.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to initiate a criminal case into the beating of Nikita Zhuravel. The department did not find any signs of crime in Adam Kadyrov's actions.