Beware! Planning to blow up virtual spy building in game can land you in jail
Story highlights
In 2020, Uvarov and two other teenagers were detained in the Siberian city of Kansk for spreading leaflets supporting a Moscow mathematician and anarchist activist, who was on trial for vandalism. The cops said that when they took the phones of these kids, they found an exchange over plans to blow up an FSB building created in Minecraft game
A Russian teenager has been jailed over a plot to blow up a virtual FSB security service building in the Minecraft video game. Well, we are not kidding, it is absolutely true.
For allegedly planning the plot, the child has been sentenced to five years in prison.
The ruling seems to be falling under a broader pattern where young Russians can be put behind bars over controversial and preemptive terrorism charges.
The news was shared by a rights lawyer Pavel Chikov on the messaging service ‘Telegram’. Chikov said that in Siberia, a military court sentenced 16-year-old Nikita Uvarov to five years in a penal colony for “training for terrorist activities”.
The hearing for the case was conducted behind closed doors.
In the case, two other defendants were cleared of criminal charges and handed suspended sentences as they cooperated with investigators, Chikov added.
In 2020, Uvarov and two other teenagers were detained in the Siberian city of Kansk for spreading leaflets supporting a Moscow mathematician and anarchist activist, who was on trial for vandalism.
The cops said that when they took the phones of these kids, they found an exchange over plans to blow up an FSB building created in Minecraft game.
As per the investigators, the teenagers were learning to make improvised explosive devices. They also practised detonating them in abandoned buildings.
“For the last time in this court I want to say: I am not a terrorist,” Uvarov said.
(With inputs from agencies)