May 11 (UPI) -- A Russian judge on Thursday gave a 22-year-old blogger a 3 1/2-year suspended sentence for playing "Pokemon Go" inside an Orthodox cathedral.
Russian Sokolovsky was found guilty of inciting religious hatred, insulting the feelings of believers and possession of special technical means -- a pen with a video camera -- for playing the game on his cellphone at All Saints cathedral in Yekaterinburg in August.
The court ordered Sokolovsky to delete videos he took of himself inside the cathedral playing the game.
Police arrested Sokolovsky in September and placed him under house arrest for two months. In January, facing the new charge for possessing the camera, he was placed under house arrest again until August 14, 2017.
During eyewitness testimony, Russia's state-run news agency, Tass, reported Sokolovsky apologized, which was taken into consideration during his sentencing. He could have faced up to seven years in prison for the charges.
"I may be an idiot, but I am by no means an extremist," Sokolovsky said shortly after his arrest.
The blogger faced the same charges leveled against members of the punk-rock group Pussy Riot. In August 2012, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in prison for performing a protest song at Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow.
Their arrests and detention sparked worldwide debate and protests about freedom of speech.
Amnesty International described Sokolovsky as a "prisoner of conscience." The human rights group decried his arrest "solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression."
