Zhuravel spoke about studying the Koran at a court hearing in Grozny – Kommersant

The accused in the case of burning the Koran in Volgograd, 19-year-old Nikita Zhuravel, who is being tried in Chechnya, said during the court hearing that he was studying the Koran. This was reported by the state agencies RIA Novosti and TASS with reference to the Visaitovsky District Court, where witnesses in the case were interrogated today via video link.

“After my imprisonment, I also read the Koran, study it, advance in the topic of studying Islam in order to understand how much I offended the feelings of believers,” said Nikita Zhuravel. “My action is terrible and has no justification,” he added.

The victims in the case of Nikita Zhuravel are 13 imams of mosques in Grozny. Due to the failure of two witnesses to appear in court, the Visaitovsky court postponed the hearing to November 16.

Nikita Zhuravel is accused of two articles: insulting the feelings of believers (Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and gross violation of public order (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Young man admitted Partial guilt: only under the first article – about insulting the feelings of believers.

The basis for initiating a criminal case was a video in which a young man, being in the bushes 20 meters from the mosque, burns the Koran. Judging by the video, there were no people on the street during the shooting. During interrogation, Nikita Zhuravel stated that he was asked to burn the Koran by unknown authors of the Ukrainian Telegram channel.

Nikita Zhuravel was detained in May, after which the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, transferred his case for investigation to the investigation department of Chechnya. The young man was taken from Volgograd to the Grozny pre-trial detention center.

Later, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a video of his 15-year-old son Adam beating Nikita Zhuravel in a pre-trial detention center. After Ramzan Kadyrov announced his son Adam the hero of all Muslims. The head of Chechnya also published a video of his conversation with Nikita Zhuravel. In the video there is a young man speaksthat he is ready to convert to Islam, but Ramzan Kadyrov in response to this calls him a “provocateur.”

Some time after the beating, Adam Kadyrov was awarded the title of Hero of Chechnya. Adam Kadyrov awarded Order “Duslyk” – the second most important state award of Tatarstan, as well as the highest state award KCR – Order “For Merit to the Karachay-Cherkess Republic”.

Anastasia Larina