Moscow - Supreme Court To Hear Synagogue Attack Verdict Appeal

Moscow - Russia's Supreme Court would consider an appeal on June 20 against a 13-year prison sentence handed down to a Muscovite convicted of attempted murder in a synagogue knife attack.
The Moscow City Court found Alexander Koptsev, 20 at the time of the attack, guilty of the ethnically and religiously motivated attempted murder of nine people at the synagogue in central Moscow on January 11, but cleared him of instigating racial hatred.

"All the sides are not satisfied with the sentence," a court spokeswoman said. Koptsev's lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to reduce his sentence, whereas the Moscow Prosecutor's Office and lawyers for the injured parties had appealed the decision to clear him of instigating racial hatred.

Doctors diagnosed Koptsev as suffering from schizophrenia, but investigators said he was in his right mind when he committed the crime. The court ruled that Koptsev undergo psychiatric treatment while in prison.