From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 2, 2024
Report: Freed Israeli-US hacker behind JCC bomb threats detained in Norway on US extradition request
An Israeli-American who served seven years in an Israeli prison for multiple counts of extortion and waging an intimidation campaign of bomb threats, including against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, has been detained in Norway on a US extradition request, Channel 12 reports.
The hacker, who was a teen at the time of his conviction and whose name remains under gag order in Israel, admitted to making some 2,000 fake bomb threat calls to hospitals, airlines, schools and various Jewish institutions out of boredom.
According to Channel 12, he was released on parole last week and travelled to Norway where he submitted an asylum claim. However, Norwegian authorities rejected the claim and detained him on an existing US extradition charge.
He remains in custody until his next hearing.
Israel had refused to extradite him to the US and tried and sentenced him in Israel.
“My client was sentenced to an unprecedented sentence in Israel, despite the fact that he was recognized as a person on the high end of the autism spectrum for offenses allegedly committed on US soil,” his lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh tells Channel 12.
“Unfortunately, the US apparently decided to administer a coup de grâce and, after a long time and in a clearly unjustified manner, request my client’s extradition from Norway to the US despite the fact that my client has already paid his debt with many years of imprisonment.”
The Ashkelon native was found guilty of hundreds of counts of extortion, publishing false information that caused panic, computer offenses and money laundering, among other charges.
Authorities say he made thousands of threatening calls, mostly to community centers and schools in the US, from January to March 2017, using an online calling service that disguised his voice and allowed him to hide his identity. He also targeted hundreds of airlines and airports, malls, and police stations, in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Britain, and tried to extort Republican State Senator Ernesto Lopez from Delaware.
