US-Israeli man sentenced in Israel over global bomb threats

An Israeli-American man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Israel on Thursday for making about 2,000 hoax bomb threats that forced evacuations of US Jewish community centers and planes to make emergency landings. The threats, by phone and email were made in 2016 and 2017. Psychiatrists found that the defendant, now 20 but a minor when some of the crimes were committed, was on the autism spectrum and had paranoid delusions. But the Tel Aviv District Court that convicted him in June said he was fit to stand trial after it weighed medical opinions. In passing sentence, the court said the defendant offered on the “dark web” - part of the Internet accessible only through special software - to make bomb and shooting threats for money, earning about $240,000 worth of the digital currency Bitcoin. The man, who has not been named in the proceedings in Israel due his status as a minor when the offences took place, has been identified as Michael Kadar in separate indictments in the United States for alleged hate crimes. “As a result of 142 telephone calls to airports and airlines, in which he said bombs had been planted in passenger planes or they would come under attack, aircraft were forced to make emergency landings and fighter planes were scrambled,” the court said.<br/>