A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has ruled to move 21 year-old video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky from house arrest to jail until January 23rd 2017.



Sokolovsky was arrested on the 3rd of September for playing Pokemon Go in a Russian Orthodox church and for leading a blog deemed "extremist" by authorities. A few days later, a court ruled he would be placed under house arrest.

But on Oct. 28, the Yekaterinburg court ruled to send him back to prison. Sokolovsky was accused of violating the rules of house arrest when his girlfriend came to visit him to wish him a happy birthday. Sokolovsky opened the door thinking it was his lawyer.

The court decision was taken behind closed doors without the presence of Sokolovsky’s lawyer. “All the lawyers had their non-disclosure agreements confiscated so I, unfortunately, cannot comment on the details of today’s meeting,” his lawyer, Aleksey Bushmakov, said.

Amnesty International has called Ruslan Sokolovsy a political prisoner.