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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A US-Israeli man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison in Israel for making about 2,000 bomb threats that forced evacuations to force evacuations from US Jewish community centers and emergency landings.
The threats, by telephone and email, were made in 2016 and 2017 and raised concerns, at the time in the United States, about the rise of anti-Semitism.
The psychiatrists found that the defendant, who was now 20, was a minor when some of the crimes were committed. He was part of the spectrum of autism and had delusions paranoid ideas. But the Tel Aviv District Court, which found him guilty in June, said he was fit to stand trial after weighing medical opinions.
By the way, the court said the defendant had offered on the "dark web" – part of the Internet accessible only through special software – to make bomb threats and shoot for money , yielding about 240,000 US dollars in Bitcoin.
The man, who was not named in the proceedings in Israel because of his minor status at the time, was identified as Michael Kadar in separate indictments in the United States for hate crimes suspected.
The Tel Aviv court has sentenced Kadar for charges including extortion, spreading hoaxes aimed at spreading panic, money laundering and computer hacking and threats of shootings against terrorists. community centers, schools, shopping centers, police stations, airlines and airports in North America, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark.
"Following 142 phone calls to airports and airlines, in which he said bombs had been laid in passenger planes or that they would be attacked, the planes were forced to perform emergency landings and fighter planes were scrambled, "said the court.
The US Department of Justice said that in early 2017, Kadar had launched bomb threats against the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish campaign group based in New York and the Israeli Embassy in Washington. , as well as threatening calls about bomb attacks and weaponry against the Jewish community centers in Florida.
Kadar, who was arrested in Israel in March 2017, is Jewish.
His parents said he was suffering from a brain tumor causing autism and other mental problems, rendering him unable to understand the nature of his actions.
"Admittedly, the accused is recognized as autistic but he is extremely intelligent and fully understands his actions," said the court, adding that he would have sentenced him to a 17-year prison sentence. He had not had any mental health problems.
The court also said that Kadar refused to disclose the password of his Bitcoin digital wallet and that his value had since reached more than a million dollars.
