He Was Convicted Of An Anti-Semitic Assault. Now He’s On The Run.
Izmir Koch
By Aiden Pink September 10, 2019
An Ohio man who was convicted of an anti-Semitic hate crime has gone missing before he was supposed to report to prison.
The FBI issued an arrest warrant for Izmir Koch and is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to his detention, Fox 19 in Cincinnati reported Monday.
Koch was convicted in December 2018 after an incident earlier that year when he exited a restaurant and began shouting in Russian to ask if anyone was Jewish. When a nearby man pointed to himself, Koch allegedly attacked him while yelling, “I want to kill all the Jews.”
The victim, who reportedly had a broken bone in his face and bruised ribs, was not actually Jewish, though he had friends and family who are.
Koch was also convicted of lying to the FBI because he initially denied his role in the attack to investigators. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison in July.
Koch was supposed to report to Federal Correctional Institute Gilmer in West Virginia on August 16, but never showed up, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. He now faces an additional five years in prison for failing to appear.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
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