Prosecutor calls for 3.5-year prison sentence for Pokémon GO blogger

Russian prosecutors have requested that blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky serve a 3.5 year prison term for playing Pokémon GO in a church.

22-year-old Sokolovsky was arrested in September 2016 for inciting religious hatred, after he posted a video of himself catching Pokémon in an Orthodox church in Yekaterinburg.

In his final testimony at the trial, which finished earlier today, the blogger expressed that he was “really shocked by the prosecutor’s request”. Sokolovsky implored the court to lessen the sentence if he is found guilty, arguing that his actions “had nothing to do with violence”.

Sokolovsky’s arrest and subsequent detention have been the subject of sharp criticism from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, which dubbed the trial a “farcical attack on freedom of expression”.

The trial’s final verdict will be pronounced on 11 May.

Source: Radio Liberty