The State Prosecutor’s Office reached a plea agreement with the American-Israeli man convicted of hoaxing Jewish community centers with thousands of bomb threats, which will tack an additional 45 days onto his seven-year sentence.
As part of the arrangement, the 22-year-old, whose name is under gag order and can only be identified by the initial M., will plead guilty to having phoned in additional bomb threats from prison.
M., an Israeli-American who was convicted of hoaxing JCCs and other targets around the world with thousands of bomb threats, arrives at the Tel Aviv District Court for his sentencing on November 22, 2018. (Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)
In exchange the prosecution dropped the charge of attempted escape, the man’s father tells The Times of Israel, adding that the incident referred to as an escape had been a psychotic episode by his son, who has been diagnosed with autism.
Despite what he insisted was a lack of evidence for the attempted escape charge, the hacker’s father explained that he and his wife had no choice but to agree to the plea deal, with the hope that once the charge is scrapped from his record, the court will agree to remove his son from the maximum security ward for those who pose an escape risk.
The man’s father, whose name is also barred from publication, said that he has filed an appeal with the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court to compel the Israel Prisons Service to improve his son’s conditions, alleging mistreatment at the hands of guards.
A hearing on the petition is scheduled for next month.
— Jacob Magid
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