Employees of the pre-trial detention center were punished for the beating of Nikita Zhuravel

In Grozny, employees of pre-trial detention center No. 1 were brought to disciplinary action, where last summer Ramzan Kadyrov’s son Adam beat Nikita Zhuravel, who was arrested in connection with the burning of the Koran. This was stated in the response of the investigation department in Chechnya, which was published by the Baza telegram channel. Earlier, the police refused to open a criminal case against Adam Kadyrov because of his age.

It is not known how exactly the employees of the Grozny pre-trial detention center were punished and to whom the response to the request for an inspection was addressed. There is also no official confirmation of the appointment of disciplinary responsibility. Kavkaz.Realii editors analyzed the document’s snapshot with the help of a manipulation detection program – it did not find any outside interference.

A statement about the beating of a detainee for burning the Koran was registered on August 18 at police department No. 1 in Grozny, says the response of the SKR in Chechnya. It became public knowledge about him two days before that, on August 16, when Zhuravel himself told the Commissioner for Human Rights in Chechnya, Mantur Soltaev, that he had been beaten by the son of the head of Chechnya, Adam Kadyrov.

In response, the Prosecutor’s Office of Chechnya reported that it had taken over the control of the procedural inspection. At the same time, the son of the head of the republic was not mentioned in any of the documents, although Ramzan Kadyrov himself previously admitted his involvement in the beating.

At the end of April, a court in Grozny sentenced Nikita Zhuravel, a resident of Volgograd, to 3.5 years in prison in the case of burning the Koran. He was found guilty of hooliganism. He was also assigned 300 hours of compulsory labor under the criminal article of insulting the feelings of believers.

At the court hearings, Zhuravel asked for forgiveness from the Muslims and declared that he found himself guilty of burning a book sacred to believers, but claimed that he had no motive for a gross violation of order.

• While in the Grozny pre-trial detention center, Zhuravel was beaten by the 15-year-old son of the head of Chechnya, Adam Kadyrov. At the end of September 2023, Ramzan Kadyrov published a video of the beating on his Telegram channel.
• The recording caused a public outcry, but the law enforcement agencies did not react to the situation in any way, did not even explain why an outsider was able to get into the pre-trial detention center and beat the arrested person. Later it became known that the police of the city of Grozny refused to initiate a criminal case “due to the absence of a crime.”
• The leadership of Chechnya has repeatedly and publicly approved the actions of Adam Kadyrov. Ramzan Kadyrov declared that “it would be good” if his son killed Zhuravel. Later, the head of the region awarded his son the highest award of Chechnya – the title of Hero of the Republic. After that, Kadyrov Jr. received many awards from the heads of Russian regions.
• “Memorial” recognized Zhuravel as a political prisoner. Human rights activists suspect that Zhuravel was involved in the burning of the main book of Muslims, and also called his transfer to Chechnya and the admission of third parties to him in pre-trial detention center “egregious violations.”