Five years in prison for a teenage fan of video games: Nikita Ouvarov, 16, was sentenced by a Siberian military court for having ” trained to commit terrorist acts “. With two friends, he had notably planned to blow up a virtual secret service building in the Minecraft video game.
” I am a child who wanted to spend time with his friends. I am not a terrorist. Nikita Ouvarov repeated this during his trial, but to no avail. The sentence pronounced, he left the courtroom under escort and was taken to a place of temporary detention, pending appeal.
The teenager and two of his friends were arrested in Kamsk, Siberia, in the summer of 2020, for distributing leaflets in support of a Moscow mathematician and anarchist activist on trial for vandalism.
Investigators analyzed the phones of the three young people and claimed to have found discussions on them relating to plans to blow up a virtual building of the Russian security services.
But the charges went beyond the virtual world of video games: according to investigators, the three suspects were also training to make very real homemade bombs and detonate them in abandoned buildings.
The young men were initially prosecuted for “belonging to a terrorist organization”, but these charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.
During the trial, which was held behind closed doors, Nikita Ouvarov denounced ” pressures authorities, according to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. His two friends, who cooperated with investigators, received suspended prison sentences.
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