US-Israeli extradited from Norway, indicted in Florida for threatening Jewish institutions in 2016-2017

A dual citizen of the US and Israel is indicted in a federal court in Florida for allegedly perpetrating a wave of bomb threats against Jewish institutions in 2016 and 2017.

Michael Ron David Kadar, 27, previously served seven years in an Israeli prison for the calls to Jewish organizations in multiple countries.

At the time of his conviction, Kadar’s lawyer said he had autism and was suffering from a brain tumor.

Kadar traveled to Norway to seek asylum after completing his sentence in Israel. He was extradited to the US on Thursday, the Department of Justice says in a statement.

Kadar faces charges in Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC, for threats to Jewish institutions and other crimes targeting those areas.

He is indicted for hate crimes and obstruction of the free exercise of religion. The hate crime charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and the bomb threats a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Kadar had been detained in Norway and was fighting extradition to the US.

He was a minor at the time of some of the offenses, and his name had been under gag order in Israel until last year.

The so-called “hacker from Ashkelon” admitted in court to making some 2,000 fake bomb threat calls to hospitals, airlines, schools and various Jewish institutions in the US and beyond out of boredom.

He was found guilty in June 2018 of hundreds of counts of extortion, spreading false information that caused panic, computer offenses and money laundering, among other charges.