In Russia, a person who burned the Quran in protest was imprisoned for 3.5 years

The court of Grozny sentenced Nikita Juravel, a resident of the Volgograd region of Russia, to 3.5 years of imprisonment for protesting the burning of the Koran. The defendant partially admitted his guilt.

The court of Grozny found Nikita Juravel, a resident of the Volgograd region of Russia, guilty of protesting the burning of the Koran and sentenced him to 3.5 years of imprisonment, TASS reports.

Juravel was charged with two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - insulting the feelings of religious people and hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

According to the investigation, on May 4, 2023, Juravel burned the Koran in protest near the mosque in Volgograd. A video recording of this process later appeared on the networks. On May 20, the Investigative Committee announced the arrest of Juravel.

After that, by the decision of the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, the criminal case against Juravel was transferred to the investigators in Chechnya. A total of 13 imams of Grozny mosques were registered as victims in the case.

In court, Juravel partially admitted his guilt and stated that he had burned the Koran for money and "didn't think about the consequences."

Juravel's lawyer, Yulia Antonova, said that the defense will appeal against the sentence. According to him, the legality and reasonableness of the court's decision should be assessed by the criminal trial panel.

After the verdict was announced, Juravel personally apologized to the Muslims and stated that he considered the punishment assigned to him to be appropriate. He had previously expressed his desire to convert to Islam and said he was reading the Koran to understand how much he had offended Muslims.