05 April 2007
In the United States, a far-right extremist has been sentenced to more than eleven years in federal prison for an attack on the synagogue in Eugene, Oregon, in 2002. According to federal prosecutors Jacob Laskey, 26, who calls himself a white supremacist, admitted as part of a plea bargain that he wanted to commit acts of violence against Jews, blacks and other ethnic or racial groups. Laskey admitted throwing rocks etched with swastikas through stained glass windows at Temple Beth Israel while about 80 people were inside attending a service.
One of his fellow attackers, Gerald Poundstone, 28, was sentenced in September to one year and three months in prison. Three other men, including Laskey's brother, Gabriel, are still awaiting sentencing. Laskey's sentence was greater than Poundstone's because Laskey also pleaded guilty to soliciting the murder of a witness, soliciting a bomb threat at a federal courthouse to disrupt a grand jury, two counts of obstructing justice and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to court records. Laskey also has prior convictions for a racist attack on a man in Florida and for another assault on a Jewish store clerk in Eugene in 2002. "His words give us insight into the mind of a domestic terrorist," the prosecutor told the court.
