Posted on 08/29/2006 2:00:38 PM PDT by SJackson
Alexander Koptsev, who was found guilty in March of attempted murder motivated by ethnic hatred in a January knife attack at Moscow's Choral Synagogue
MOSCOW (EJP)--- A 21-year-old Russian man who stabbed nine people in a Moscow synagogue said at his retrial Thursday that he had been "zombified" by anti-Semitic literature he had read online, Russian news agency ITAR TASS reported.
"You can say that I was zombified by ideas I read on the Internet," said Alexander Koptsev, who was found guilty in March of attempted murder motivated by ethnic hatred in a January knife attack at Moscow’s Choral Synagogue.
Koptsev’s attack, during which witnesses say he shouted "Heil Hitler!" while stabbing his victims, was caught on video by security cameras.
Russia’s supreme court overturned the lower court’s verdict and 13-year prison sentence in June and ordered a retrial.
Both the prosecution and the defense had appealed the verdict, with the defense demanding a lighter sentence and the prosecution protesting the court’s decision to drop an additional charge of inciting inter-ethnic hatred.
Both the prosecution and the defense had appealed the verdict, with the defense demanding a lighter sentence and the prosecution protesting the court’s decision to drop an additional charge of inciting inter-ethnic hatred.
"I deeply regret what happened and ask forgiveness from those who suffered and their families for the harm done to them. But I do not recognize my guilt," Koptsev told the court.
Russian NGOs say that anti-Semitism and xenophobia are on the rise and growing deadlier in Russia.
Two young Russians admitted this week to Monday’s bombing of a Moscow market, which killed 10 people. The suspects said they had targeted the market because of its largely Asian workforce.
Earlier this month, non-identified individuals threw an incendiary bottle into the premises of a synagogue in the centre of Khabarovsk in Russian Far East. No one was hurt.
It was the second attack of this kind on the synagogue this summer. Anti-Jewish slogans were inscribed on a concrete wall in front of the synagogue in late May. The inscription was painted over, but no criminal action was started.
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Convenient. "The DEVIL internet made me do it
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