Russia – The Orenburg Central District Court has convicted four locals for painting a swastika on the Orenburg synagogue, the regional police said today.

“A local resident organized a skinhead group together with his three 21-year-old fellows. The group aimed to breach security and to undermine fundamentals of the Russian constitutional system,” the police said.

The group painted a swastika and nationalist slogans, in all, 12 nationalist symbols, on the facade of the Orenburg synagogue last March-April.

The perpetrators were seized in summer 2008 and identified themselves as skinheads, the police said.

The court sentenced one defendant to five years in custody, another to six years in custody, the third to 160 hours of correctional work, and the fourth to 240 hours of correctional work.

(Source: Interfax)