HRC member Eva Merkacheva asked the head of the FSIN to transfer Nikita Zhuravel, accused of burning the Koran, from a Chechen pre-trial detention center to another region

Member of the Human Rights Council Eva Merkacheva asked the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Arkady Gostev, to transfer Nikita Zhuravel, a person involved in the case of burning the Koran, from Chechnya “to an institution of the Federal Penitentiary Service of another region.” about this She wrote in her Telegram channel.

“For security reasons, I ask you to urgently transfer Nikita Zhuravel to a FSIN institution in another region. I also ask you to check on what basis, during the period of detention, persons who were not related to the investigation and who, according to the law, did not enjoy the right to communicate with those under investigation, gained access to it,” the human rights activist wrote.

Student Nikita Zhuravel is accused of insulting the feelings of believers (Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code). The reason for the criminal case was a video with burning pages of the Koran against the backdrop of a mosque in Volgograd. The author of the video separately focuses on the cover of the book and then on the mosque - the investigation believes that it was filmed by Zhuravel.

The detention of a 19-year-old boy became known on May 20. Later, security forces published a video in which Zhuravel says that he burned the Koran on instructions from “people from Ukraine” for 10 thousand rubles. On May 21, the Investigative Committee issued a press release noting that the video of the burning of the Koran was published “in the public domain on an Internet portal controlled by the TsIPsO of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

By decision of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, the investigation of the case was transferred from the department for the Volgograd region to the department for Chechnya. On May 22, a court in Volgograd sent Zhuravel to a pre-trial detention center, and on May 27, the young man was taken to a detention center in Grozny.

In mid-August, Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova reported that she had received a complaint from Nikita Zhuravel. According to a Volgograd resident, he was beaten by Ramzan Kadyrov’s son Adam in a pre-trial detention center. Companions of the head of Chechnya - Magomed Dudov, Adam Delimkhanov and Akhmed Dudayev - supported the action of his son.

Chechnya's Ombudsman Mansur Soltaev and the Republic's Minister of Information Akhmed Dudayev also reported that the beating occurred immediately after Zhuravel's personal meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov. Adam came to it with his father.