FACT CHECK: Did Russia Sentence A Man To 14 Years In Prison For Burning The Quran?

Russia is known for its harsh penalties for many infractions, such as desertion in wartime and drug use. Their prisons are notoriously cold and rough, and they are consistently full, with Russia being at the top of the list when it comes to incarceration numbers.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has been known to be harsh when it comes to its legal system. They famously jailed American basketball player Britney Griner for 10 months over drug possession, and Putin himself has been at the forefront of conspiracy theories because a lot of his enemies end up dead.

A post on X claims that a Russian man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for burning a copy of the Quran. About 15% of the Russian population is Islamic. The claim in the post is misleading, however.

According to the Moscow Times, Nikita Zhuravel, a 20-year-old man from Chechnya, was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison for treason. He has already been incarcerated on a 3.5-year sentence on charges of “offending religious believers” and hooliganism, for which he was found guilty. The two cases are separate, and the Quran burning case was settled in February 2024.

Zhuravel was convicted of treason after having been accused of sharing videos of Russian military equipment to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) being transported by rail along with other sensitive information. The neighboring countries have been in a hot war since 2022.

While the two cases are unrelated, questions are being asked about the reasoning for the charges, with some calling him a political prisoner. According to Reuters, Zhuravel was assaulted while in pre-trial detention by the 15-year-old son of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Putin.