Russian Court Upholds Lengthy Sentence for Man Beaten by Kadyrov's Son

Nikita Zhuravel

Russia's highest court has decided to keep a 14-year prison sentence in place for Nikita Zhuravel, a 20-year-old who was found guilty of state treason and burning a Quran. The case gained public interest after reports that Adam Kadyrov, son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, physically attacked Zhuravel while he was in custody. Following the attack, Adam Kadyrov received awards from the government.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court stated that it had looked over the appeal but saw no reason to change the original sentence. The court said that the initial investigation and court proceedings were handled legally. It added that the sentence was in line with criminal law. Zhuravel will stay in prison until he is moved to a correctional facility to serve his time.

Nikita Zhuravel has an interesting background. He was born in Crimea, a part of Ukraine that Russia took over in 2014. He went to a military-style school and later studied at a university in Volgograd, Russia. In May of 2023, he was arrested and charged after a video appeared to show someone burning a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque.

The investigation took a strange turn when Alexandr Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee, ordered Zhuravel to be moved to Chechnya. This move went against Russian law, which says that crimes should be investigated in the place where they happened – in this case, Volgograd. When Zhuravel arrived at the detention center in Grozny, Chechnya, he was met by protesters who were organized by local officials and were calling for a people's court.

It was in this detention center that Adam Kadyrov allegedly beat Zhuravel. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and Adam's father, said publicly that his son was right to defend Islam by attacking Zhuravel.

In February 2024, a court in Grozny sentenced Zhuravel to three and a half years in prison for burning the Quran. The court said that his actions were hooliganism and insulted religious people. He was to serve his time in a standard prison.

During the trial, Zhuravel apologized to Muslims, admitting that he burned the book. He claimed, that he did not have any bad intentions or want to cause public disorder.

Several months later, the authorities opened a new case against Zhuravel, accusing him of state treason. In November 2024, he was convicted of working with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The government claimed that he sent a video of a train carrying Russian military equipment to an SBU officer.

The evidence against Zhuravel is questionable. There is no solid proof that he was involved in the state treason case. And in the video of the Quran burning, the person responsible cannot be clearly identified. The case rests mainly on Zhuravel's confession, which human rights group Memorial believes was forced from him by law enforcement.