Blogger faces jail for playing Pokémon Go

YEKATERINBURG: A Russian state prosecutor asked a court to jail a blogger, who played Pokémon Go inside a church, for three-and-a-half years on Friday, saying he was guilty of inciting religious hatred, a court employee said.

Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, a popular blogger, last August posted a video online of himself playing Pokémon on his mobile phone inside a church in Yekaterinburg built on the spot where the last Russian tsar and his family were killed in 1918.

In the video, which contains strong language mocking Christianity, Sokolovsky likens Jesus Christ to a Pokémon character and decided to play the popular game inside the church because he had seen a news report saying people who did so could be fined or jailed.

Soon after the video appeared, state prosecutors accused Sokolovsky of inciting religious hatred, the same charge used to successfully prosecute the Pussy Riot punk band in 2012 when they staged a cathedral protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I believe there is no reason to exempt the defendant from liability,” the prosecutor told the court, Tass news agency reported. “There is no reason to sentence him to a fine… I request the court sentence him to 3.5 years in a penal colony.”

A suspended sentence would create a dangerous impression of impunity, the prosecutor added.

Sokolovsky, who was previously confined to a pre-trial detention centre, is currently under house arrest.

“I’m in shock,” Sokolovsky told the court after listening to the prosecutor, video footage of the proceedings showed. “I have been in jail, I was there for three months, and it is the doorway to hell.

Leonid Volkov, an opposition activist, condemned the prosecutor’s stance, saying the sentence was harsh. – Reuters