Jerusalem Post - 11.24.2004

Jerusalem Post 

Anti-Semitic publisher convicted

(AP) - A Moscow court on Wednesday convicted an editor of publishing articles inciting ethnic hatred and gave him a suspended sentence, news reports said. 

The Moscow Timiryazev District Court found Viktor Korchagin, the editor of the Rusich magazine, guilty of stirring up ethnic and religious hatred and handed him a one-year suspended prison sentence – which means he will not be jailed. 

The verdict marked a rare occasion when a Russian court moved against anti-Semitic publications, which have flooded Russian cities. 

Korchagin was charged after a World War II veteran complained that his publication carried anti-Semitic materials. Experts, consulted by investigators, backed the claim. 

Korchagin pleaded innocent but stuck to defamatory language the courtroom. 

"The verdict will not do good to the Jewish people, as it paralyzes their instinct of self-preservation," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying on Wednesday. 

Korchagin previously ran the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti, which was closed down for anti-Semitic publications. In 1995 Korchagin was found guilty of stirring up ethnic hatred, but was later amnestied, news reports said. 

Before leaving the court house on Wednesday, Korchagin said he will soon publish the next issue of his magazine. 

The government has repeatedly pledged to uproot the remnants of anti-Semitism that remain in Russia. The nation has seen attacks on synagogues and other violent anti-Semitic acts, and some politicians occasionally resort to anti-Semitic rhetoric.