MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Moscow’s Basmanny Court has made a ruling in absentia to take into custody the spokesman of Meta (designated as an extremist organization in Russia), Andy Stone, in connection with charges of aiding and abetting terrorism, a court representative told TASS.

"The court has arrested Andy Mark Stone in absentia in a case of aiding and abetting terrorism," the representative said.

According to case files, the ruling was made on November 24 and has already been appealed.

Stone has been charged with aiding and abetting terrorism while performing the duties of his job. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

In March of last year, the Russian Investigative Committee opened an investigation into calls for violence and killings with respect to Russians, which were made possible by Meta staff. The committee said at the time that Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on a social network that Meta temporarily removed a ban on calls for violence against Russian servicemen on its platforms, saying they constituted a form of political self-expression. The agency said the aforementioned actions bear the signs of such crimes as public calls for extremist actions and aiding and abetting terrorism. It said investigators were working to assess the lawfulness of the actions of Stone and other employees of the US-based company.