Posted to General on
AP

Alexander Koptsev entering a Moscow court room
before his trial on Monday. (AP)

The Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced a man who attacked worshippers in a synagogue with a hunting knife to 13 years in prison and mandatory psychiatric treatment.

The court found Alexander Koptsev guilty of attempted murder on racist grounds for stabbing and wounding nine men in January at the Moscow synagogue.

The sentence brought a chorus of catcalls and invective from Koptsev's supporters in the courtroom. One woman, who identified herself only as an Orthodox Christian journalist, loudly complained that Jewish children were getting educated in Moscow on Russian taxpayers' money.

“When will this end? Wake up, wake up,” she shouted.

Court sentences Moscow synagogue attacker to 13 years in prison

AP

Alexander Koptsev entering a Moscow court room
before his trial on Monday. (AP)

The Moscow City Court on Monday sentenced a man who attacked worshippers in a synagogue with a hunting knife to 13 years in prison and mandatory psychiatric treatment.

The court found Alexander Koptsev guilty of attempted murder on racist grounds for stabbing and wounding nine men in January at the Moscow synagogue.

The sentence brought a chorus of catcalls and invective from Koptsev’s supporters in the courtroom. One woman, who identified herself only as an Orthodox Christian journalist, loudly complained that Jewish children were getting educated in Moscow on Russian taxpayers’ money.

“When will this end? Wake up, wake up,” she shouted.

The court dropped a charge of inciting interethnic hatred, and prosecution lawyers said they would appeal that.

“By deciding to drop (the article), the court made a political decision … in order to reassure the public that such things don’t exist,” prosecution lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said.

Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar said he was satisfied with the stiff prison sentence but disappointed that the incitement charge had been dropped.

“We consider and continue to consider the main thing to be the educational value, a demonstration of the judicial system’s preparedness to decisively struggle against fascism, anti-Semitism and extremism,” Lazar said in a statement.

A million Jews live in Russia, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities, and the Jewish community is currently experiencing a revival after a wave of emigration to Israel and other countries.

Rising xenophobia in recent years has seen hundreds of racially motivated attacks on targets including dark-skinned immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains region. Rights activists say hate groups are emboldened by authorities’ mild approach to prosecuting hate crimes, and complain that literature from neo-Nazis and other extremists is sold freely.

Related Articles:

+ Man goes on stabbing spree in Chabad House
+ Update: Attacker injures 8 people in Moscow synagogue (including pictures of the attack)
+ STATEMENT BY AGUDAS CHASIDEI CHABAD OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION ON THE ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK IN MOSCOW
+ Synagogue Attack Accused Pleads Innocence, Rails at Court
+ Moscow’s Mass Stabber: The Laws Were Written by Jews

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9 Comments

  • chvh

    great for this guy, I hope that it will stop other people from dooing this things.

  • anonomous

    To chvh:
    What do you mean great for thsi guy. He should get life. What heppens when his sentence is over . He goes out and does the same thing CV

  • confused

    I think she made a mistake….
    I think she means, that he just showed ppl a lesson.
    anyways…Yeah, he should get life, I mean stabbing nine people!
    4get the jew thing for a second, maybe they would act differently if it were non jewish people they would make the sentance higher, im sure of it!

  • Ploni Ben Ploni

    When I was on shlichus in Russia you have to be very carefull from lots of Shikurim at night, they can get very violent.

  • not satisfied

    that pig shold get more then 13 years. 13 years is not good enufe for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Mottel

    13 years is not enough, but considering how things could have been (even look at American justice) it could have been far less . . .
    Please don’t use the tired "antisemitism" card . . .