Attacker who beat up Jewish man in front of German synagogue will not go to jail

JTA — A Kazakhstani man who assaulted a Jewish man wearing a kippah in front a synagogue in Hamburg will not go to prison because he has psychiatric issues, a German judge ruled.

The 29-year-old assailant, identified in the German media only as Grigory K., bludgeoned the Jewish man with a folding shovel so severely on October 4 that the victim had life-threatening injuries.

Grigory K. had taken a taxi to the synagogue and carried a drawing of a swastika in his pocket as well as a folding knife, which he did not use, the Judische Alegemeine reported Thursday.

Dozens of members of the Jewish community protested the ruling in front of the Hamburg prosecutor’s office earlier this week.

Grigory K. may be tried for attempted murder, with hate as an aggravated element. Owing to the court’s impression, however, that his psychiatric condition at the time of the assault makes him not responsible for his actions, he will not be sent to jail but treated at a psychiatric facility regardless of the outcome of any judicial proceeding.