MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The sentence handed down to Nikita Zhuravel, who has been convicted by a Chechen court of burning the Koran, is not a matter for the presidential administration, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"This is not a matter for the president's administration. We do not comment on court rulings," Peskov told journalists on Tuesday. He was asked whether the Kremlin sees Zhuravel's sentence as fair, "while Adam Kadyrov [son of Chechnya's head Ramzan Kadyrov] was not held to account for beating up Zhuravel in the remand center but received several awards in different regions."
Zhuravel was detained in Volgograd in May 2023 as part of a criminal investigation opened into the burning of the Koran outside a mosque. He was then handed over to Chechen law enforcement agencies. Grozny's Visaitovsky District Court on Tuesday sentenced Zhuravel to three years and six months in a medium-security penitentiary for insulting feelings of believers and committing an act of hooliganism.