Blogger Anton Nosik fined 500,000 rubles for extremism

Russian blogger and journalist Anton Nosik has been fined 500,000 rubles (approximately $8014) for extremism, reported our correspondent from inside the court room on Monday.

Nosik was being charged for his post called "Erasing Syria off of the face of the earth", in which he expressed support for bombings in Syria and compared the country with Nazi Germany.

The prosecutor demanded that Nosik be sentenced to two years in prison. Nosik pled not guilty and promised to appeal after the verdict.

Nosik's post "Erasing Syria off of the face of the earth" was published October 1, 2015, the day after the beginning of the Russia's bombing of Syria. The post is still available on LiveJournal. During the hearing, Nosik said that over the course of the past year that the post was online not one person tried to get it taken down.

A criminal case was initiated against him in November 2015. The prosecution argued that Nosik has "intended to incite hatred and hostility towards Syrians".