CONVICTION FOR PLAYING POKEMON GO IN CHURCH

MOSCOW A Russian blogger was convicted on Thursday of inciting religious hatred for playing “Pokemon Go” in a church, and given a suspended sentence.

Ruslan Sokolovsky posted a video on his blog last year showing him playing the smartphone game in a church built on the supposed spot where the last Russian czar and his family were killed in the city of Yekaterinburg. He has been in detention since October.

Judge Yekaterina Shoponyak on Thursday found Sokolovsky guilty of inciting religious hatred and gave him a 3½-year suspended sentence.

It is the same offence that sent two women from the Pussy Riot punk collective to prison for two years in 2012.