Russian vlogger gets 3.5 year sentence for playing Pokemon GO in a church
Last year, in protest to Russia's anti-blasphemy law that criminalized playing Pokémon GO in church, vlogger Ruslan Sokolovsky filmed himself catching Pokémons in Yekaterinburg’s Church of All Saints, the site where the last Emperor of Russia Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918, and shared the footage on his YouTube channel:
The 22-year old was then detained for two months for “inciting hatred” and “insulting religious feelings” after posting the video, and later taken to a pre-trial detention center for breaching the terms of his house arrest after the young man had posted a video on the Internet though he had been banned from using the web and mobile communications. Judgement was passed this Thursday and Sokolovsky was found guilty of all charges.
"In accordance with the expert evaluation, the court found blogger Sokolovsky guilty of inciting hatred, violating religious feelings and illegal possession of special technical means - a pen with a video camera," said judge Yekaterina Shoponyak who granted the prosecutors' wish and gave the vlogger a 3.5-year suspended sentence.
Judge Shoponyak pointed out that the 22-year old video blogger was on trial not only for playing the game in the church but also for posting several videos that offended believers. She listed "mockery of the immaculate conception," ''denial of the existence of Jesus and Prophet Muhammad" and "giving an offensive description of Patriarch Kirill," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
During the court hearings, Sokolovsky did not deny that he had been the author of these videos but concerning the pen with a camera, he reportedly said that not only was the pen not his, but that it wasn’t a camera at all, but instead just a light bulb.
During the interrogation of eyewitnesses, the blogger apologized to all worshippers who had complained about being offended.
What do you think of this case? Was the verdict fair in finding Sokolovsky guilty who on top of violating the country's anti-blasphemy law, additionally breached the terms of his house arrest? Or is suppressing one's freedom of expression a more serious offense?
SOURCE 1, SOURCE 2
