Russian man jailed for burning Koran sentenced to 14 years on separate Ukraine treason charge

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By Lucy Papachristou

LONDON (Reuters) – A Russian man serving time in prison for burning a copy of the Koran was found guilty by a court on Monday in a separate treason case and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

A regional court in Volgograd in southwestern Russia said it had convicted Nikita Zhuravel, 20, of state treason for corresponding online with a member of the Security Service of Ukraine and for acts “directed against the security of the Russian Federation.”

Zhuravel’s case drew attention last year when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published video showing his son Adam, then 15, beating and kicking him while he was in prison in Chechnya awaiting trial for burning a Koran in Volgograd, his hometown.

Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has cast himself as a staunch defender of the Islamic faith in the overwhelmingly Muslim republic, where Zhuravel was transferred after what Russian investigators said was public pressure from Chechens.

The office of Russia’s Prosecutor General said last month that Zhuravel had also been accused of sending footage of a freight train carrying warplanes, and information about the movements of a car linked to a Russian military base to a representative of Ukrainian intelligence.

Zhuravel had pleaded guilty to the crime, the court said in a statement on Telegram on Monday, adding that he had been opposed to what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine. It published video showing armed guards leading Zhuravel, with close-cropped hair and a short beard, down the courthouse staircase in handcuffs.

Reuters could not immediately reach his lawyer to ask about the reported guilty plea and whether he planned to appeal. Treason cases, held behind closed doors, hardly ever result in an acquittal, official statistics show.

The number of such cases has risen sharply in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, as intelligence agencies pursue a crackdown on suspected foreign spies and agents.

Yevgeny Smirnov, a member of a Russian lawyers’ association called Pervy Otdel (First Department) which has in the past helped defend people accused of treason, said Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, sometimes tries to entrap people.

He said the FSB contacts people known to be opposed to the war over the internet and encouraged them to commit crimes, such as setting fire to military buildings or sending sensitive information related to the Russian military.

Reuters could not independently verify his assertion. Russia rarely comments on individual criminal cases.

Zhuravel is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence following his conviction in February under Russia’s law against offending religious believers. Investigators said he had confessed to publicly burning the Koran in a stunt paid for by Ukrainian intelligence.

It was not clear under what circumstances the alleged confession was made.