Man beaten by Adam Kadyrov for burning the Quran located after ‘disappearing’ during prison transfer
The whereabouts of Nikita Zhuravel, a man convicted in Chechnya for burning the Quran, have been confirmed months after his ‘disappearance’ during a prison transfer.
Zhuravel’s whereabouts had been unknown since late December.
Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, has cited a letter Zhuravel penned to his mother in which he stated that he was in prison and felt well. Merkacheva has claimed the letter was dated 26 March.
In the letter, Zhuravel reportedly also noted that he had sent a letter home about a month earlier and expressed hope that it had been received; however, as noted, his family did not receive it.
‘We’re so glad to have heard from our son at all’, Zhuravel’s mother said.
Reports of Zhuravel being out of reach emerged in late March 2026. At that time, his lawyer Andrei Sabinin contacted Merkacheva, stating that he has not had access to his client since 24 December 2025. According to the lawyer, Zhuravel was transferred from Moscow in the last 10 days of December, after which his whereabouts remained unknown.
Elizaveta Chukharova
The Federal Penitentiary Service later stated that reports of Zhuravel’s disappearance were untrue, saying that he continues to serve his sentence and that he received a letter from his mother on 21 January. Zhuravel’s mother has denied this information.
Zhuravel was born in Crimea, Ukraine, which came under Russian occupation in 2014. He studied at a cadet school and later at a university in Volgograd. In May 2023, Zhuravel was detained and charged in connection with a video showing a person burning a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque.
Soon afterwards, Zhuravel and his case were transferred to Chechnya on the instructions of the head of the Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, despite this being contrary to the Russian criminal procedure code, which requires investigations into alleged crimes be take place where they occurred — in this case, Volgograd.
After his arrest, Zhuravel was beaten in the Grozny Detention Centre by Adam Kadyrov. Ramzan Kadyrov stated at the time that his son had defended Islam by beating Zhuravel.
He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in Grozny on charges of hooliganism and insulting religious feelings in February.
During the court hearings, Zhuravel apologised to Muslims and stated that he admitted his guilt in burning the book, but claimed that he had no motive for committing such a gross violation of public order.
A few months later, another criminal case was opened against Zhuravel, this time accusing him of ‘state treason’. In November 2024, he was also found guilty of cooperating with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). According to the investigation, he allegedly passed a video of a railway train carrying Russian military equipment and aircraft to an SBU officer.
The human rights organisation Memorial has recognised Zhuravel as a political prisoner. The organisation stated that even if Zhuravel was proven to have burnt the Quran, it should be treated as an administrative offence rather than a criminal one.
Elizaveta Chukharova
