Volgograd student Nikita Zhuravel, suspected of setting fire to the Koran, was taken to the pre-trial detention center in Grozny. RIA Novosti published a video in which a paddy wagon with him in Chechnya was met by «outraged residents of the region.»
The men in the video are holding banners of the same type with the inscriptions «Hands off the Koran!», «People's court for a Satanist!», «Our religion is our life» and others. As soon as the car with Zhuravel approaches the crowd, one of those gathered shouts: “Death to the Nazis! Let's protect the Quran!».
“We have gathered here today to show the whole world that we will not offend the traditional values of our country and religion. <…> We are very glad that this person was transferred to our republic. We'll fix him, show him he's wrong. No one will torture or kill him. I am sure that in a month he will have completely different thoughts already, ”RIA Novosti quotes the words of one of those who came.
Zhuravel is charged with an article on insulting the feelings of believers (Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code). A Volgograd citizen is being persecuted for an 11-second video with an open Koran, the pages of which are on fire. The author of the video separately focuses on the cover of the book and the mosque in the background.
The detention of the student became known on May 20. In a video released by the FSB, he is stopped by two police officers as he rides a bicycle with a backpack from the Samokat delivery service. Soon a minibus pulls up to the place of detention; law enforcers run out of it, dragging the courier inside, leaving his bike on the road.
After gluing, there are frames with a student lying face down on the floor. Initially, he connects the detention with the fact that he was «filming fighter jets.» In response, the voice-over calls the date of the alleged burning of the Koran — May 4 — and demands to «step by step» tell «how he came to this.»
“People wrote to me in the telegram <…> [from] telegram channel <…> from Ukraine <…> [They] just run a telegram channel and want to help their country <…> They offered me some money,” Zhuravel answers the security official’s questions.
Soon, in a new passage, the student says to the camera that he “acquired the Koran on the instructions of the SBU and burned it on May 4, 2023”, “sent video materials to the SBU officers”, and “for this work [he] should have been paid 10 thousand rubles.” At the same time, Zhuravel's face is blurred, and it is impossible to say for sure whether he reads the text prepared in advance.
The next day after the information about the detention of the young man, on May 21, the Investigative Committee issued a press release, which noted that the video with the burning of the Koran «was published in public access on an Internet portal controlled by TSIPSO APU«. The department added that by decision of their chairman Alexander Bastrykin, the investigation of the case would be transferred from the department of the Investigative Committee for the Volgograd region to the department for Chechnya.
On May 22, a court in Volgograd sent Zhuravel to a pre-trial detention center. During the meeting, the young man admitted his guilt and asked for forgiveness. “My act was very bad, I am really ashamed in front of all the Muslims of the world,” he told reporters.