EJP | News | Moscow prosecutor seeks 16 years for synagogue knife attacker

A prosecutor Monday demanded a 16-year jail sentence for a 21 year-old man alleged to have injured eight people in an anti-Semitic rampage with a knife through a Moscow synagogue. Alexander Koptsev is charged with attempted murder with religious and racial motives. A rabbi, three young men each aged 18, a security officer and other staff of the synagogue were hospitalised after the atack on January 11. The prosecutor said the accused had acted alone and was not one of a skinhead gang, as alleged in initial press reports and by the synagogue. "In his statements the accused practically confirmed ... that his attacks had been premeditated," said a prosecution officer quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency. "Alexander Koptsev went hunting human beings," the officer said. He had allegedly even sought to add to his victims’ humiliation by using a hunting knife bearing the engraved inscription: "Good fishing, happy hunting."