Israeli court indicts teen over bomb threats
Print Edition
AN Israeli-American teenager was indicted in Israel yesterday on allegations he made thousands of hoax bomb calls, some targeting US Jewish community centers, and earned US$240,000 by offering to phone in threats against schools, hospitals and planes.
The arrest of the suspect, who is Jewish, in Israel on March 23 drew headlines when he was identified by police as having been behind bomb threats against the centers in the US that had raised fears of a surge in anti-Semitism.
An indictment filed in the Tel Aviv District Court pointed to a threat-for-profit motive by the 18-year-old, who prosecutors said used electronic voice-altering equipment and a long-range WiFi antenna to cover his online tracks.
The suspect, the charge sheet alleged, had the equivalent of about US$240,000 in his Bitcoin account earned via make-a-threat services he offered on the “Darknet,” which includes members-only websites that are not available to the public.
The teen’s US-born mother and Israeli father say their son, who moved to Israel aged 5 and lives with them in the southern city of Ashkelon, is autistic and suffers from a brain tumor that affects his behavior. No plea has been entered.
“He has high-level autism. I appeal to the world on his behalf for forgiveness for he does not know what he has done,” his mother said. “This tumor has caused a state of some type of mental dysfunction that he is not aware of what he is doing. My son does not hate anyone.”
Israeli prosecutors said the suspect made bomb and shooting threats against some 2,000 institutions, including schools, shopping malls, police stations, airlines and airports in North America, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Denmark.
The threats forced the evacuation of many Jewish community centers, including some with facilities for infants and young children.
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