Haaretz
Tevet 14, 2766
A
19-year-old Russian man was sentenced to five days in jail Saturday for an
attack on a synagogue a day earlier in the southern city of Rostov-an-Don,
in the second such incident in Russia in the past week.
The summary
proceedings and sentencing came the morning after the man had forced his
way into a synagogue and threatened several worshippers there with a
broken bottle. Police arrived on the scene to overpower the
attacker.
The accused man said he carried out his attack after
seeing on television the reports about Wednesday's incident in a synagogue
in Moscow by a 20-year-old who allegedly wounded eight worshippers with a
knife.
On Friday, Russian authorities charged that attacker with
racially-motivated attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Of
the eight persons stabbed in the Moscow synagogue, four were still in
hospital.
The Moscow prosecutors' office said Alexander Koptsev,
20, had said during interrogation that he had committed the crime "out of
envy toward them (Jews), since they live better," and that he had been
inspired by books and Internet sites. He also told investigators that one
of his motivations was "my desire to die," it said.
A million Jews
live in Russia, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities, and the
Jewish community now is experiencing a revival after a wave of emigration
to Israel and other countries. Rising xenophobia in recent years has seen
hundreds of racially motivated attacks on targets including dark-skinned
immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains
region.
Rights activists say hate groups are emboldened by
authorities' mild approach to prosecuting hate crimes and complain that
literature from Nazis and other extremists is sold freely.
The
lower house of parliament's legislative committee has prepared a package
of bills to strengthen anti-extremist legislation, committee head Pavel
Krasheninnikov said Friday, according to the Interfax news
agency.
Jewish leaders, however, have demanded that authorities
push for better enforcement of existing laws.
U.S. Ambassador
William Burns visited the Moscow synagogue on Friday morning.
"The
United States welcomes Russian government statements condemning the attack
and Prosecutor General (Vladimir) Ustinov's intent to oversee personally
the criminal case," Burns said in a statement at the synagogue.
"We
urge the Russian authorities to use all legal means to prosecute the
perpetrator of this crime, and stop any such attacks in the future. It is
crucially important to fight extremism in all its forms," Burns
said.
Russian lawmakers take on extremism
The speaker
of Russia's lower house of parliament said Thursday that lawmakers might
consider tougher legislation to prevent extremism after a knife attack on
worshipers at a Moscow synagogue that wounded 11 people.
The attack
at the Chabad Bronnaya synagogue came amid an increase in the activity of
hate groups in Russia and in the number of racist crimes. Jewish leaders
said the attack should serve as a clear message to Russian authorities and
the public to fight racism.
Russian political parties, religious
communities and the Russian Foreign Ministry all condemned the
attack.
Parliamentary Speaker Boris Gryzlov said that while Russia
had adequate legal means to fight any form of extremism, "if it does not
guarantee the absence of such incidents that means we should consider
toughening this legislation."
"The provocations of those who would
like to bring about discord in Russian society and ignite national and
religious dissension, which have not succeeded, will not succeed," the
Russian Foreign Ministry said. "We will continue an uncompromising
struggle against all manifestations of anti-Semitism, xenophobia and
religious intolerance."