3.5-Year Jail Term Sought for Man Accused of Quran Desecration in Russia

IQNA – A man accused of desecrating the Quran in Russian is likely to receive a 3.5-year jail sentence.

Prosecutors in Russia’s republic of Chechnya have asked a court to sentence the young man accused of burning a Quran to 3.5 years in prison, the state-run news agency TASS reported Tuesday.

Nikita Zhuravel, 20, was detained in May on suspicion of publicly burning a Quran in the southern region of Volgograd.

Local authorities granted a request by Chechen law enforcement to have Zhuravel stand trial in the North Caucasus region.

The Visaitovsky District Court in the Chechen capital of Grozny is scheduled to hand out the verdict against Zhuravel on Feb. 27.

Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Zhuravel to three years and six months in a medium-security prison, according to a spokesperson.

The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges of offending religious believers but denied that he sought to disturb public order.

Source: themoscowtimes.com