The student who burned the Quran has his treason conviction upheld

The Supreme Court of Russia upheld the sentence of Nikita Zhuravel, who was found guilty of treason. His combined sentence for two criminal cases, including the Quran-burning case, was 14 years in a maximum-security prison colony.

The Memorial Human Rights Center considers Zhuravel a political prisoner. Previously, after his arrest for the Quran-burning case, Zhuravel was beaten in a Grozny pretrial detention center by Adam Kadyrov, the son of the head of Chechnya. Zhuravel was reportedly transferred from Chechnya to Volgograd for an appeal hearing, and then to the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center in Moscow.

The 19-year-old man was arrested in May 2023 in Volgograd for a Quran-burning event he filmed. He then confessed that he had done it for money, commissioned by the Ukrainian secret services.

The young man was transferred to a pretrial detention center in Grozny and later sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on charges of insulting religious feelings and hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. In late September 2023, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published a video showing his 16-year-old son, Adam, beating Nikita Zhuravel in the detention center.

Later, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced the opening of a new criminal case against Zhuravel for treason. According to investigators, the young man also provided Ukrainian security forces with photographs of a train carrying military equipment. Under the new sentence, Zhuravel received 13.5 years in a maximum-security prison colony.

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