Moscow Shul Attacker Sentenced - 03.27.2006
Moscow Shul Stabber Gets 13 Years, But Found Not Guilty of Incitement
News coverage - UPDATED Interfax: Apr. 10 Prosecutor robbed, again AP Apr. 05 Attacker appeals on mental health grounds
NCSJ: Mar. 27 Moscow City Court Sentences Skinhead
JTA Mar. 28 Russian Jewish group upset after sentence FJC: Mar. 27 Violent Anti-Semite Not Inciter of National Hatred AP: Mar. 27 Moscow neo-Nazi gets 13-year sentence Interfax: Mar. 27 Chief Rabbi regrets not guilty of incitement verdict AP: Mar. 20 Prosecutors want 16 years jail for attacker
earlier coverage
Prosecutor in synagogue attacker case robbed, again
MOSCOW (Interfax) -- Kira Gudim, the prosecutor of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office who prosecuted the Moscow synagogue attacker, has been robbed again.
Gudim complained to the police at 10:30 a.m. on April 7 that her bag, which contained 7,700 rubles, a service card, car documents, plastic cards, a mobile phone and personal items, had been stolen from her Renault Laguna near her home, a source in Moscow law enforcement told Interfax on Sunday.
The property stolen was valued at over 20,000 rubles.
The thieves escaped in a car, the source said.
Police think that the robbery is not linked to Gudim's professional activities.
But Gudim's apartment was burglarized a month ago.
Interfax reported on March 9, citing a source in law enforcement, that a thief had broken into Gudim's apartment and stolen a laptop computer, a cell phone, a mink coat, two leather jackets, a golden watch, a golden chain and a camera, worth a total of 123,000 rubles.
Gudim had asked the court that Alexander Koptsev, 20, who stabbed nine worshippers in a Moscow synagogue in January 2005, be given 16 years in prison under charges of multiple attempted murders motivated by national and religious hatred.
The Moscow City Court sentenced Koptsev to 13 years in a high-security prison.
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Report: Moscow synagogue attacker appeals sentence on mental health grounds
MOSCOW (AP) The lawyer for a man sentenced to 13 years in prison for attacking worshippers in a Moscow synagogue filed an appeal with Russia's Supreme Court Tuesday to have his client's sentence reduced, arguing he was mentally unstable.
Alexander Koptsev was convicted last month of racially motivated attempted murder for stabbing nine men at the synagogue with a hunting knife in January.
Defense lawyer Vladimir Kirsanov asked the high court for a lighter sentence for Koptsev, saying he was mentally ill, ITAR-Tass reported. Kirsanov also argued that Koptsev did not kill anyone and that the injuries he inflicted did not render any of the victims disabled, according to the news agency.
The Moscow City Court dropped a charge of inciting interethnic hatred, a ruling that has already been appealed by prosecutors.
Roughly 1 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 that followed the Soviet breakup.
Rising xenophobia in recent years has seen hundreds of racially motivated attacks including on 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.
Also Tuesday, lawyers for a teenager sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for his role in the stabbing death of a 9-year Tajik girl appealed his conviction, citing technical irregularities in the trial in St. Petersburg, ITAR-Tass reported.
Roman Kazakov, 16, had initially been charged with murder in the February 2004 incident, but a jury later reduced the charge to hooliganism - a decision that outraged rights activists.
Meanwhile, the trial of 13 people charged with the murder of a Peruvian university student last fall opened in a city south of Moscow. One of the accused faces murder charges, while the others have been charged with robbery or hooliganism. All face an additional charges of carrying out a crime for racial reasons.
Enrique Arturo Angeles Hurtado was attacked at a sports complex in Voronezh last October, along with two friends - another Peruvian and a Spaniard who also attended Voronezh State University. The killing prompted a formal protest from Peru.
Over the past six years, at least seven foreigners have been killed in apparently racially motivated attacks in Voronezh, where many foreign students attend university.
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Moscow City Court Sentences Skinhead
March 27 (NCSJ) -- Today the Moscow City court sentenced Alexander Koptsev, the skinhead whose knife attack injured nine people during evening prayers at Moscow's Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue in January 2006, to 13 years in prison for attempted murder of two or more persons, but dropped the key charge of provoking inter-ethnic hatred.
This sentence represents a pattern of behavior by the Russian judicial authorities. While the attacker received a lengthy sentence, the Court did not charge Koptsev with inciting national or religious hatred. We spoke with a number of Moscow community leaders who share our disappointment that while Koptsev was convicted of attempted murder, the government missed an opportunity to prosecute a skinhead under the Russian Criminal Code 282, incitement of ethnic, racial, or religious strife.
Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar expressed dissatisfaction over the Russian court system's unwillingness to pursue charges of provoking inter-ethnic hatred.
"We were hoping that this case would have an educational value too -- that the verdict will demonstrate that the court system is ready to combat fascism, anti-Semitism, and extremism...unfortunately, the accused was sentenced only for committing an attack, rather than for the actions he took in aims of inciting national hatred."
(see Federation of Jewish Communities story).
Tankred Golempolsky, Publisher of the International Jewish Newspaper, one of the independent Jewish newspapers in Moscow also expressed concern about the sentencing. "The government is not willing to admit that xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and racism exists in Russia," he said.
Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said, "The verdict was better than the one given to the attacker who seriously wounded Leopold Kaimovsky in a similar attack at the Choral Synagogue several years ago. However, we were disappointed that the racial incitement charge was not pursued."
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 03.28.2006
Russian Jewish group upset after synagogue attacker sentenced
By Lev Krichevsky
MOSCOW (JTA) -- A leading Russian Jewish group has sharply criticized the verdict of a man found guilty of stabbing nine people in a Moscow synagogue because the court failed to call the attack a hate crime.
On Monday, the Moscow City Court sentenced Alexander Koptsev, 21, to 13 years in prison for attempted murder in the January incident. But the court cleared Koptsev of a second charge, inciting ethnic or religious hatred, effectively refusing to treat his crime as an act of anti-Semitism. The defense is expected to appeal.
The verdict is more evidence of "how the judicial system in our country is not willing to fight against racial and religious intolerance," the Federation of Jewish Communities said in a statement Monday.
The group's leader echoed this statement. "I have a dubious feeling about today's sentence," Berel Lazar, one of Russia's chief rabbis said. "Yes, the sentence is severe and adequate for the gravity" of the crime. "But at the same time I'm concerned by nearly maniacal unwillingness of the courts to qualify crimes of this type as inciting ethnic and religious hatred," Lazar said in a statement.
Lazar said the verdict "leveled the educational meaning" of the sentence as court found the man guilty only of his acts, not of the motives that made him act.
Yitzhak Kogan, the rabbi of the synagogue where the incident took place, refused to comment on the verdict.
In his final word in the court last week, Koptsev was unrepentant, although he asked those whom he injured to forgive him.
He added that his victims should not have been targeted because they "are not waging war against my people, as are their" fellow Jews "who are in power" in Russia. He added that enmity against Russians is in Jewish "genes."
On Jan. 11, Koptsev stabbed nine people in the Bolshaya Bronnaya Street Synagogue in Moscow with a hunting knife before being pushed to the ground by the synagogue's rabbi and several worshippers.
Investigators have established that Koptsev was an avid reader of anti-Semitic literature, although he was not an official member of any of the neo-Nazi groups active in Moscow.
Vadim Kluvgant, the victims' lawyer, said he would appeal to reinstate the hate crime charge.
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Moscow neo-Nazi gets 13-year sentence
(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.
It dropped a charge of provoking interethnic hatred, and prosecution lawyers said they would appeal that, the Interfax news agency reported.
"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.
The Moscow prosecutors' office said Alexander Koptsev, 20, had said during interrogation that he had committed the crime "out of envy for them (Jews), since they live better" and that he had been inspired by books and Internet sites. He also told investigators that one of his motivations was "my desire to die."
Koptsev said in televised comments that he was retracting initial statements he made in custody, but it was unclear whether he was referring to the comments the prosecutors made public.
"While in custody, I made statements. I retract them," he said from behind the bars of a courtroom cage in footage shown on state-run Rossiya television, his hair very short and his face marked with cuts and bruises. But he added that he later made accurate statements.
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.
Shortly following the attack, security guards at a Kiev synagogue thwarted a stabbing attempt in Ukraine.
A 60-year-old man arrived at the synagogue and asked to meet with the rabbi.
When they were alone, the man pulled out a knife and, declaring that "all Jews should be killed," attempted to stab the rabbi.
Security guards pulled off the assailant and handed him over to local police.
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Federation of Jewish Communities - 03.27.2006
Moscow Court: Violent Anti-Semite Not Inciter of National Hatred
MOSCOW, Russia - The Moscow City Court has sentenced Alexander Koptsev, who was charged for attacking worshippers at the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue, to 13 years imprisonment in a high security prison. While the court agreed to try the culprit on the charge of attempted murder of two or more persons on the basis of ethnic hatred grounds, at the same time, it dropped the charges of provoking inter-ethnic hatred.
While the court recognized the weight and potential danger posed to the public by this criminal, it also took into consideration during the proceedings were Koptsev's illness, good personal references from his place of residence and the absence of a previous criminal record. Koptsev's lawyer, Vladimir Kirsanov, vowed that he would appeal the sentence, which was met by yelling in Koptsev's defense and insulting references to Koptsev's victims by people in the courtroom. At the same time, those persons who came out to support the defendants also protested loudly in the courtroom lobby.
In remarking upon the sentence in this gruesome case, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar said he had mixed feelings about the verdict. “The verdict is severe but adequate for the crime he committed. I am hopeful that the position taken by the Prosecutor, supported by the Court, will be able to cool down many hotheads, who counted on the impunity of nationalistic and racist violence.”
On the whole, the Chief Rabbi expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the Russian Courts' unwillingness to qualify such crimes as inciting national or religious hatred. We were hoping that this case would have an educational value too – that the verdict will demonstrate that the court system is ready to combat Fascism, anti-Semitism and extremism. “Unfortunately, the accused was sentenced only for committing an attack, rather than for the actions he took in aims of inciting national hatred,” he regretted. Rabbi Lazar also recalled other crimes committed on the basis of race or ethnic group, such as that of a nine-your-old Tajik girl, who was seriously injured when recently attacked in S. Petersburg.
“In our multi-national and multi-religious country, such a situation is not simply aggravating the criminal atmosphere, but fundamentally undermines the stability of our society,” commented Rabbi Lazar. “Judges are members of our society: they have to realize that crimes based on national grounds constitute a special type of crime, targeting not only the victims directly but the very foundation of the Russian state.”
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Berel Lazar regrets Koptsev found not guilty of enticing ethnic and religious strife
MOSCOW (Interfax) -- Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar described as adequate today's decision to sentence Alexander Koptsev, who attacked parishioners of a synagogue in Moscow, to 13 years imprisonments, while stating that dropping the charge under Criminal Code Article 282.2, which is the enticing of ethnic, racial or religious strife, 'has graded down the educational point.'
'Yes, the sentence is severe and adequate to the weight of the crime committed. I sincerely hope that supported by the court, the prosecutor's stand on this case will be able to cool many hotheads who counted on impunity for nationalistic and racist violence,' Rabbi Lazar says in this statement conveyed to Interfax on Monday.
'But at the same time', he added, 'I am sincerely concerned with the outright maniacal reluctance of courts to qualify such crimes as enticing ethnic or religious strife.'
In this connection, he expressed regret that Koptsev was convicted of only his attack, not of his action aimed at enticing ethnic hatred. 'This has considerably downgraded the educational effect of the severe verdict,' Rabbi Lazar is convinced.
He recalled that the other day a nine year-old mulatto girl was attacked in St. Petersburg; she was seriously wounded by knife. 'The motive is evidently the same as in Koptsev's case: one does not like another's color of skin or religion or ethnic background and one takes up a knife', the statement says.
In conclusion, the rabbi calls upon judges 'to realize that crimes committed on ethnic grounds are of a special kind and it is not only direct victims and their families but the very foundations of Russian statehood that suffer from them.'
On Monday the Moscow City Court has sentenced Alexander Koptsev to 13 years imprisonment in a high security prison, dropping the charges of provoking inter-ethnic hatred under Russian Criminal Code Article 282, but retaining the charge of attempted murder of two or more persons.
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Prosecutors want 16 years jail for Moscow synagogue attacker
(AP) -- Prosecutors called Monday for a 16-year prison sentence and mandatory psychiatric treatment for the young man accused of attacking worshippers in a Moscow synagogue, Russian news agencies reported.
Alexander Koptsev, 20, allegedly stabbed and wounded nine men in January with a hunting knife inscribed with the saying, "Happy fishing, successful hunting." He has been charged with attempted murder, assault and actions aimed at humiliating ethnic or religious groups.
"In his testimony, the accused has practically confirmed the testimony given during the preliminary investigation: that the attack on the synagogue was planned and premeditated," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Moscow prosecutor Kira Gudim as telling the Moscow City Court on Monday.
Prosecutors say Koptsev was acting alone and that he does not belong to any extremist group. He was judged sane at the time of the attack, but a chronic schizophrenic condition had an impact on his actions, ITAR-Tass quoted the results of a medical examination as determining.
A million Jews live in Russia, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities, and the Jewish community now is 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 Nazis and other extremists is sold freely.
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