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Custody Prolonged For Accused Ekho Moskvy Knife Attacker


Boris Grits attends a court hearing in Moscow on January 18.

A court in Moscow has prolonged detention for the man accused of stabbing Ekho Moskvy radio journalist Tatyana Felgengauer in October.

The court ruled on January 18 that Boris Grits, who officials and eyewitnesses say burst into a studio at the station in October and stabbed Felgengauer in the throat, must stay in detention until April 23.

An investigator at the hearing said that Grits, a 48-year-old dual Russian-Israeli citizen, has been found insane and must be kept in custody.

Tatyana Felgengauer asks a question during Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual press conference on December 14.
Tatyana Felgengauer asks a question during Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual press conference on December 14.

"Intensive measures of a medical character have been recommended for the defendant because he can be dangerous to himself and society," the investigator said.

Felgengauer's lawyer, Sergei Badamshin, said on January 17 that Grits had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and found unfit to stand trial.

Grits, who investigators said told police he had been in "telepathic contact" with Felgengauer for five years, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination following his arrest in October.

Felgengauer, who returned to work in November, wrote on Twitter on January 17 that "what is most important for me is that the man who tried to kill me be isolated and not pose any threat."

"It is up to a court to decide how he is isolated, in prison or in a compulsory medical institution," Felgengauer wrote.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax
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