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Man Who Stabbed Moscow Radio Journalist Confined to Mental Institution

Boris Grits (Kirill Zykov / Moskva News Agency)

A Russian-Israeli man accused of stabbing Ekho Moskvy radio station deputy editor Tatyana Felgenhauer was ruled unfit to stand trial and ordered to receive treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

Boris Grits broke into the Ekho Moskvy office in Moscow and stabbed Felgenhauer in the neck in October 2017 before being wrestled to the ground. He was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and claimed during an interrogation that Felgenhauer was "sexually harassing" him by "using telepathic means of contact."

Moscow’s Presnensky district court judge Yelena Abramova found Grits to be unfit to stand trial and ordered compulsory treatment in a psychiatric facility, the radio station reported Friday.

“It’s good that this man will be isolated,” Felgenhauer said on air after the news broke. “We have been pressing [to make sure] this man will not to harm anyone else.”

“This is a story that could have happened to anyone at any moment,” the journalist said, dismissing allegations that the attack may have been motivated by her profession.

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