Court In Siberia Jails Young Man For 'Justifying Terrorism Online'

A 23-year-old man from the Siberian city of Tomsk has been sentenced to five years in prison for "justifying terrorism" on the Internet.

The Investigative Committee said on August 19 that the resident of Tomsk, whose name it did not give, was a supporter of radical Islam and posted under a nickname on the VKontakte Russian social network, voicing support for terrorist acts across Russia.

According to the statement, the court also banned the man from using the Internet for two years. Russian news agencies identified the man as Kazakh citizen Ilya Kalinichenko, a hockey player at the local club in Tomsk that is a member of the Siberian Students Ice Hockey League.

Kalinichenko's mother told reporters that she will appeal the ruling, saying that her son's posts on the Internet neither supported nor called for terrorism.

With reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti