Russian court rejects appeal of blogger jailed for 'extremist' tweet

Moscow, Oct 4 (AFP) A Russian court on Friday threw out the appeal of a blogger sentenced to five years in prison for a tweet calling for attacks on the children of police. Moscow City Court ruled that Vladislav Sinitsa, 30, must serve the sentence, rejecting his claim that his words were not intended as a call to action.

The 30-year-old posted the tweet on July 31 in the wake of a police crackdown against opposition supporters holding protests calling for free elections. A Moscow district court last month found Sinitsa guilty of inciting hatred, a charge that falls under Russia's harsh anti-extremism legislation.

In his tweet replying to a pro-Kremlin blogger, Sinitsa imagined a situation in which people found the homes of law enforcement officers to kidnap and kill their children. The post was picked up and reported on by pro-Kremlin media.

Sinitsa, speaking via a video link, told the court on Friday: "No one should be jailed for words and thoughts." He said that Russia is now "living in some kind of Middle Ages." His defence team asked for the punishment to be softened to a non-custodial sentence, saying Sinitsa was not dangerous to the public. Lawyer Denis Tikhonov said after the verdict that he had hoped the court would "lower the sentence to show the human face of the Russian justice system." Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called the tweet "really dumb," but said it was idiotic to issue such a severe sentence.

Russia has in recent years increasingly criminalised online content, frequently jailing people for sharing or publishing information deemed extremist or illegal. The law currently forbids the sharing of content judged extremist, though rights groups say this label is also applied to opposition material.

In July, a court jailed a blogger from the industrial city of Tolyatti for one year for making "public calls for terrorism" with a tweet about a suicide bomb attack on the offices of the FSB security agency. In 2017, a video blogger was convicted of inciting hatred against believers by posting videos showing him chasing Pokemons in a church, but received only a suspended sentence. (AFP) MRJ

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