A man playing Pok eacute; Come on "in a Russian church. You can spend in prison is 3 1/2 years. Courier - Washington

Ruslan Sokolovsky, a blogger who Pokémon Go to your phone in a church played a hearing before a court in Yekaterinburg March 13 (Konstantin Melnitskiy / Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) participate

Last summer Ruslan Sokolovsky entered the imposing Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg, a city about 1,000 miles east of Moscow. The Russian Orthodox Church has a special meaning for some, while it had been built on the site where the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II was murdered with his family.

But Sokolovsky there was not to worship or pay homage to the history of Russia. Instead, the blogger church halls gold, eyes and fingers coated glued to their smartphone. He played Application "Pokemon Go", which allows users to "Catch 'Em All', Augmented Reality with.

"But, you know, do not take the rarest Pokémon that can be found there - Jesus," Sokolowski, an outspoken atheist, said at the end of a video he recorded on that day. "It does not even exist, so I do not really surprised. "

At that time, Pokémon Go knew the unprecedented madness finally die within a few weeks. However, the consequences for Sokolovsky last long after he launched the application on the phone last summer to life - and published the video of them playing Pokémon Go - venture in the church on YouTube .

According to Russian officials the images was discovered Sokolovsky arrested with incitement to religious hatred charged last fall and. On Friday, the last day of the trial claimed that the prosecutor's office in Russia a set of three and a half years in prison for Sokolowski.

Sokolowski, now 22, he protested his possible punishment exceeded the crime.

"I may be an idiot, but I'm not an extremist," Sokolowski said in a statement, according to the Russian news site Meduza . He compared his sentence for jokes about the Orthodox Church proposed that had been imprisoned under Joseph Stalin as a joke about communism for decades.

"For me it's savagery and barbarism," said the statement Sokolovsky how Meduza. "I do not understand how this is possible. as we have seen, it is quite possible. This makes it "

It was not suggested the only comparisons between punishment severe prison and was created in Stalin's Russia. While prosecutors and other arresting Sokolovsky under a new law justified that the "prevent infringement of the right to the freedom of conscience and of faith and the law - -, others ruined the possible punishment have" as a restriction on free expression.

"In the past #Russia imprisoned for mocking communism / Stalin people to Orthodoxy satisfied now," Moscow Times journalist Matthew Kupfer tweeted .

The group Human Rights called Amnesty International Sokolovsky a "political prisoners" and criticized the Russian government for the arrest of the blogger "solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression."

Were collective Pussy Riot 2 years found - the charges against Sokolovsky, incitement to religious hatred is the same offense, in which two women in prison Punk - Rock according to the Associated Press . The group held a demonstration against President Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in 2012. Soon after, two members on charges of vandalism were arrested.

The following year the Russian parliament passed a law on the basis of the incident Pussy Riot punish activities that "insulting the feelings of believers." If you are charged represent the defendants in prison up to three years and at least six men were on this attempted charge last year, according to Amnesty International.

[ Inspiration Russian Pussy Riot Act for a player of Pokémon Go prisoners ]

Sokolovsky critics say that it is under this law that the arrest was justified Sokolovsky.

"The problem is, he did it on purpose, even if it Pokemon" has a priest of the Diocese of Yekaterinburg explains to Global News last fall. "But it does not matter. This was a result of the offense. "

A judge will issue a final judgment in the case of Sokolovsky May 11 according to the Associated Press.

As the Yanan Wang contribution is reported , in September last year, at the time Russia was not the only country struggling to manage the Pokémon craze is revered in some places:

In India, noticed a high court in the state of Gujarat sent ... who decided claims to hear a complaint that augmented reality game "religious feelings" tramples the Pokémon characters in temples and other places of worship to represent, Pokémon figures including show ovoid in some Hindu sites where non-vegetarian food is prohibited.

And in America, believes that the Holocaust Museum in Washington could not know that he he had discovered a "PokeStop" in the game, a center filling out the required elements as "Pokeballs" in the player and "potions. "The museum officials were forced to publicly urge people in their rooms capture stop virtual monsters.

"The game play does not fit in the museum, a monument to the victims of Nazism," Andrew Hollinger, communications - director of the museum, told the Washington Post . "We are trying to see if we can get out the museum from the game."

Read more:

Holocaust museum visitors: Please stop the Pokémon - Capture here

Pussy Riot has generated the outrage in Russia, the recognition in the West

A prisoner Director of the Ukraine to Russia only at a price to write gain freedom