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Russian Blogger on Trial for Playing Pokémon Go in Church

Russian blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky is on trial in Yekaterinburg, Russia for allegedly playing Pokémon Go inside a church. If convicted, he faces up to seven-and-a-half years in prison. The euronews. website began streaming a video about the trial on Monday.

Sokolovsky has been in pre-trial detention since October, when a court reversed the house arrest he had been serving at his attorney's apartment. Sokolovsky had been appeal against the arrest.

The now 22-year-old blogger reportedly posted a video on August 11, which showed him playing the game inside the Church of All Saints. He has been charged with "incitement to hatred and attacks on the liberty of faith." The Russian Orthodox Church reportedly said the alleged provocative nature of the video led to Sokolovsky's prosecution rather than the act of playing Pokémon Go. The church where the blogger allegedly played the game is built on the site where Tsar Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and his family were killed.

After the Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot performed in protest at a Moscow church and recorded a music video there, three were convicted of the same offense of "incitement to hatred and attacks on the liberty of faith." The three were sentenced to two years in prison in 2012, although one member had her sentence suspended.

Pokémon Go is already disabled the game in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. in August.

The Pokémon Go app launched in select countries including the United States on July 6, and has since launched in more than 50 countries.

Source: Independent.ie