At trial in Zhuravel’s case, court listens to testimonies of two prosecution witnesses

A fellow student of Nikita Zhuravel has stated in his testimony that he did not ask the defendant about his attitude to Islam and does not know on whose instructions Nikita Zhuravel burned the Koran.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that court hearings in Nikita Zhuravel’s case were repeatedly postponed for various reasons. Imams from Chechnya, involved in the Nikita Zhuravel’s case as victims, stated at the court hearing held on December 12 and 20 that the burning of the Koran insulted them and all Muslims.

The testimonies of two prosecution witnesses were read out during a court hearing at the Visaitovsky District Court of Grozny, the “Chechnya Segodnya” (Chechnya Today) news agency reported.

“Nikita worked as a courier. He said that he did not support the special military operation (SMO), since he was a native of Crimea, which was earlier part of Ukraine ... He never told me that he planned to burn the Koran with a video recording and disseminate it on the Internet,” testified Nikita Kuznetsov, a fellow student of Nikita Zhuravel.

The witness noted that he was “shocked” by the video showing the burning of the Koran.

Irina Sivalapova, a bookstore employee, said that she would not be able to identify Nikita Zhuravel, since there were always a lot of people in the bookstore.