Moscow - Synagogue Attacker Gets 16 Years

Moscow - The Moscow City Court sentenced Alexander Koptsev who injured nine people in a knife attack at a Moscow synagogue to 16 years in prison, he was convicted of attempted murder driven by racist motives and of inciting ethnic hatred, at this second trial.

The court also ordered Koptsev, who was 20 when he rampaged through a synagogue last January, stabbing worshippers with a hunting knife before he was wrestled to the ground, to undergo psychiatric treatment at the facility where he will be imprisoned.

Koptsev had been convicted of attempted murder driven by racist motives in March and sentenced to 13 years in prison, but the Supreme Court overturned the conviction in June amid appeals by both prosecutors, who wanted a longer sentence, and defense lawyers who claimed he was mentally unstable.