MOSCOW, March 5 - RAPSI. The case of a man who threw ink over two icons in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow has been forwarded to the courts, the Prosecutor General's Office said on Tuesday.

The defendant faces up to five years in prison.

St. Petersburg resident Yuri Piotrovsky, 62, came to the cathedral on September 16, 2012, took out two plastic bottles of black ink from his pockets and hurled the liquid at the Nativity of Christ and the Savior icons. After he was detained, the police found out that he was a registered psychiatric patient.

A criminal case for hooliganism has been opened.

The prosecutors' statement says that according to the pretrial investigation, Piotrovsky wanted to attract attention to himself as "an ideologist who sought to prove the falseness of religion by damaging icons, which are religious objects of special importance for Orthodox Christians."

Experts conducted a mental institution evaluation of the individual and concluded that he is criminally sane.

The cathedral's sacristan Mikhail Ryazantsev said earlier that the icons had already been restored.

After the incident, the cathedral's fund said that it would be taking extra security measures against vandalism, but that the procedure for entering the building will remain the same and visitors will not be searched.