Church Pokemon Go player in Russia faces years in jail
Church Pokemon Go player in Russia faces years in jail
A blogger admits he maybe "an idiot", but says he is "in shock" over the threat of jail that he branded "the doorway to hell".
Image:Ruslan Sokolovsky was filmed using the app inside a Russian Orthodox church
Russian prosecutors have said a blogger arrested for playing Pokemon Go in a church should serve more than three years in jail.
Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, was filmed using the augmented
reality app inside the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg - a
Russian Orthodox church built on the spot Tsar Nicholas II and his
family were killed in 1918.
The footage, which has been watched
1.7m times on Youtube, shows Mr Sokolovsky asking: "Who can ever be
offended by you walking around a church with your smartphone?"
At
the end of the video, he describes Jesus as "the rarest Pokemon",
adding: "It all went well…I liked it, nobody was disturbing me".
Russian prosecutors have said a blogger arrested for playing Pokemon Go in a church should serve more than three years in jail.
Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22, was filmed using the augmented
reality app inside the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg - a
Russian Orthodox church built on the spot Tsar Nicholas II and his
family were killed in 1918.
The footage, which has been watched
1.7m times on Youtube, shows Mr Sokolovsky asking: "Who can ever be
offended by you walking around a church with your smartphone?"
At
the end of the video, he describes Jesus as "the rarest Pokemon",
adding: "It all went well…I liked it, nobody was disturbing me".
Image:The 22-year-old has been charged with inciting religious hatred
A month after the footage was posted online the 22-year-old was
arrested and charged with inciting religious hatred, the same charge
used to successfully prosecute the Pussy Riot punk band when they staged a cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin in 2012.
Mr
Sokolovsky, who was initially held in a detention centre but is now
under house arrest, could face a three-and-a-half year jail sentence if
convicted.
"I believe that there is no reason to exempt the defendant from liability," a state prosecutor said.
"There
is also no reason to sentence him to a fine ... I request that the
court sentence him to three-and-a-half years in a penal colony."
Image:Footage of the stunt has been watched 1.7m times on Youtube
Handing down a suspended sentence would create "a sense of impunity", the prosecutor added.
Mr Sokolovsky said he was "in shock" over the potential sentence.
He said: "I have been in jail, I was there for three months, and it is the doorway to hell.
"I do not consider myself an extremist, maybe I'm an idiot, but (I am) not in any way an extremist."
Image:Mr Sokolovsky faces the same charge as that used to successfully prosecute members of Pussy Riot
Leonid Volkov, a prominent opposition activist, said the call for a jail term was "some kind of hell".
He said: "(It is) the full-on inquisition, the middle ages and (George Orwell's) 1984 rolled into one."
A verdict is expected to be handed down on 11 May.
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