MOSCOW, December 22 (RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov) – The Supreme Court of Russia on Thursday mitigated a 6.5-year prison sentence given to Moscow school student Kirill Banetsky for joining Right Sector, a far-right Ukrainian group banned in Russia, and pushing for extremism, by 2 months, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The convict said during the Thursday hearing that he returned from Right Sector of his own free will and did not have a chance to report his voluntary withdrawal from the organization because of the arrest. The young man pleaded guilty and repented all what he had done.

Banetsky was convicted and sentenced in September 2016. In addition to the prison term, the Moscow District Military Court banned him from posting publicly-accessible materials on telecommunications networks for a year.

According to case papers, the school student published three posts calling to extremism on the Internet before April 2015. Upon reaching the age of majority, he left for Ukraine and joined Right Sector where he took sabotage physical and ideological training.

In April 2016, Banetsky escaped from the far-right group trembling for his life. On May 1, he was arrested by police in the Bryansk region.