Russian blogger jailed for playing ‘Pokemon Go’ files appeal

That’s what a Russian YouTuber faces for playing the game in a church.

The Associated Press reports that Sokolovsky has filed an appeal but it’s still too soon to say how this case will play out.

If convicted under the “blasphemy law” Sokolovsky could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. In the video that precipitated his arrest, he stood in front of the Church of All Saints and expressed doubt that he would be arrested, as The Moscow Times translates: “This is complete nonsense”. As the Guardian and the Verge have also noted, the statute Sokolovsky allegedly violated was the same Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code that landed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot in jail for several years back in 2012.

According to technology news outlet Vocativ, in the video Sokolovsky asks “who the hell can get offended from walking with a smartphone in church?” As of this writing, the video is approaching a million views.

Under Russian law, a person who commits “clear disrespect for religion” can be either fined 300,000 rubles per year for a period of two years, ordered to do community service for two years or imprisoned for the same time. The head of the religious affairs committee, Jaroslav Nilov, expressed doubt that simply using a phone in a church could constitute an insult.

On Saturday, Russian officials announced that atheist vlogger Ruslan Sokolovsky has been detained for two months for “inciting hatred” and “insulting religious feelings” after posting a video of himself playing Pokémon Go inside a historic cathedral.