Court sentences Russian blogger to 5 years in penal colony for threats to police officers’ children

Moscow’s Presnensky District Court on Tuesday sentenced Russian blogger Vladislav Sinitsa, who was charged with extremism over his tweets, published after unsanctioned protests in the capital, threatening the children of Russian law enforcement officers. He was sentenced to five years in a general regime colony.
The indictment says Sinitsa had published “extremism-related” calls on social media “urging a wide range of people to begin illegal acts of violence” against children of law enforcers.
His actions pursued a goal “of instigating hostility and hatred against all law enforcers and their families,” according to investigators.
The blogger pleaded not guilty to the charges. Lawyer Denis Tikhonov told TASS that Sinitsa would appeal the sentence in the Moscow City Court and at the European Court of Human Rights.