"I thought I would die and not see him again," his mother said after the hearing. "Thank you everybody."

Sokolovsky during the trial pleaded not guilty and refused to testify.

In a passionate final statement, he said he is "an atheist, a cosmopolitan and a libertarian" and did not want to prevent anyone from practising their religion.

Leaving the courthouse on Thursday, Sokolovsky greeted a crowd of supporters, which included a man wearing a yellow Pokemon costume, and said that he is "very pleased to be free."

He added that he will "be very calm and quiet since they can chase me down and give me a real term."

"It will be a long time before a new video clip appears," he said. "I'm not an extremist, that much is certain."

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, Serapion Mitko, told RIA Novosti agency that he hopes Sokolovsky "draws the right conclusions" from the case, adding that a suspended sentence is evidence of humaneness of the Russian court system.

Amnesty International called him a prisoner of conscience and had urged Russia to release him.

On Thursday, the rights group said that Russia "blatantly misused the criminal justice system" in Sokolovsky's case, calling it a "show trial".