Man sentenced to 16 months for vandalising gurdwara in US

Washington, September 18

A 29-year-old man in the US has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for vandalising a Sikh temple in 2017, according to a media report.

Artyom Manukyan’s sentence is concurrent with a penalty he faces under a prior arson case, Los Angeles Times reported.

He scrawled two hateful screeds outside the Hollywood Sikh Temple on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz in August 2107, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Police were earlier considering hate crime charges against Manukyan, saying the messages were designed as a threat to the Sikh community. He pleaded no contest to felony vandalism of religious property in August 2018.

He was sentenced on Monday.

Before the 2017 incident, Manukyan was previously arrested on suspicion of burglary and making criminal threats, the report said.

At the time of the vandalism, there had been an 11.5 per cent increase in hate crimes across California in the previous year, according to the California Department of Justice. PTI