The American-Israeli hacker who terrorized dozens of Jewish community centers across the United States has been found guilty.
A string of bomb threats led to evacuations at Jewish community centers across the country, including this one in the Miami area. (WFOR – CBS Miami)
The defendant, an 18-year-old dual citizen at the time of his arrest last year and unidentified because he was a minor when some of the crimes were committed, was convicted at a Tel Aviv court on Thursday
Calls to JCCs began last January, and continued in waves that hit centers in northern New Jersey, Connecticut, JCC Manhattan and all over the country, sending children into the streets as they evacuated amid fears of an attack.
The hoax bomb threats also came as attacks were made on Jewish cemeteries and swastika graffiti made appearances on parks and buildings, part of a surge in attention to anti-Semitism after the election of President Trump.
The teen from Ashkelon, Israel, who is Jewish, was arrested last spring, and told psychiatrists that he made the calls as a “game” because he was bored, according to the Jerusalem Post.
His parents saying that their son has benign brain tumors that impacted his ability to understand what he is doing.
But he was found fit to stand trial and on Thursday he was convicted of extortion by threat, sending false messages and other crimes.
Beyond the Jewish community centers, the teen was also accused of making hundreds of bomb threats to various institutions, police stations and airports around the world.
Delaware’s Republican state senator Ernesto Lopez, who criticized the attacks publicly, was also a reported target along with former Pentagon official George Little.
In April he was accused of making even more bomb threats from prison.
Federal charges were also filed against the defendant in the U.S., though potential extradition was postponed as he was tried in Israel.
By CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
Source: NY Daily News
