Sentence passed over desecration of Jewish grave

A 20-year-old man from the Zhytomyr region has been convicted by the Berdichev City-District Court of an act of vandalism in the Jewish Cemetery in Berdichev. He was sentenced under Article 297 (desecration of a grave) to an 18-month term of imprisonment with a one year probation period.

The convicted man said that he had committed the act in a drunken state out of hooliganism. He also voluntarily paid compensation for the damage caused. The man was arrested on 4 March this year on suspicion of desecrating the grave of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev.