MOSCOW - A court on Friday sentenced a man who wounded nine people in a knife attack at a Moscow synagogue to 16 years in prison after a second trial, Russian news agencies reported.

On Friday, the court convicted Koptsev of attempted murder driven by racist motives and of inciting ethnic hatred, Russian news agencies reported. The court had dropped the latter charge in the earlier trial, a decision that drew criticism from prosecutors and others who said it was politically motivated.

The Moscow City Court also ordered Alexander Koptsev, in his early twenties, stabbing worshippers with a hunting knife last January before he was wrestled to the ground, to undergo psychiatric treatment at the facility where he will be imprisoned, RIA-Novosti reported.

	Advertisement

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.

"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 during the trial, held in March.

Prosecutors had said 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, according to the results of a medical examination.

Timur Kireyev, spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, said he was satisfied that the court acknowledged Koptsev's racist motives, but expressed hope that the case would not be merely a one-time show trial and that authorities would crack down on hate crimes.

"Sometimes when people commit those crimes, they don't understand what they are being punished for - the absence of reference to racism in the verdict could prompt other similar crimes," Kireyev said.