Israeli teen accused of 2,000 bomb hoaxes and threats to US senator

An Israeli teenager arrested for allegedly making bomb threats against Jewish centres in the US is facing charges relating to thousands of hoax calls worldwide, including against airlines and police stations, according to an indictment filed to a Tel Aviv court.

The 18-year-old, identified by US prosecutors as Michael Kadar, is facing accusations of making threats for financial gain alongside charges of money laundering and the attempted blackmail of Ernesto Lopez, a Delaware state senator.

Details of the charges being faced by the teenager, a joint US-Israeli citizen who lives in the coastal city of Ashkelon, came as it emerged that Israel would probably oppose his extradition to the US, where many of the crimes were allegedly committed.

The Israeli indictment includes allegations that he made threats to about 2,000 institutions worldwide using sophisticated technology to mask his voice and IP address.

Kadar, who has not been named in Israeli proceedings, was arrested last month in Ashkelon, after a joint investigation by Israeli and US authorities, including the FBI.

The threats against targets including Israeli diplomatic offices, schools, shopping centres, law enforcement agencies, hospitals and airlines contributed to fears of rising antisemitism in the US.

The indictment said that after Lopez, a Republican on the Delaware senate, criticised the wave of threats, Kadar called him to demand payment in bitcoin or face incrimination on the internet. When Lopez did not respond, he ordered drugs online to send to the senator’s house.

Kadar is separately accused of threatening to kidnap and kill the children of a former CIA and Pentagon official.

In addition to the bomb threats to Jewish centres, the indictment said Kadar made a bomb threat against an El-Al flight to Israel that sparked fighter jets to be scrambled, and threatened a Canadian airport, which required passengers to disembark in emergency slides and left six people injured.

He is also accused of threatening a Virgin flight that as a result dumped eight tons of fuel before landing, and of threatening a plane being used by the NBA’s Boston Celtics.

Reports in the Israeli media have alleged Kadar took payments for some of the bomb threats from students who wanted exams postponed. He reportedly had almost $500,000 in his bitcoin account at the time of his arrest.

The indictment said he posted set fees for calls to police stations, schools or airports.

The Israeli indictment comes three days after the US Department of Justice brought 32 charges against Kadar, including conveying false information to police, cyberstalking, and making threatening calls to about 200 institutions.

An indictment filed in a Florida court on Friday accused the teenager of making threatening calls – with his voice disguised to sound like a woman – describing in graphic detail how children would be killed in US Jewish centres.

It linked Kadar to at least 245 threatening telephone calls between 4 January and 7 March 2017, many targeting Jewish community centres in the United States.

The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, described the calls as responsible for “threats of violence [that] instilled terror in Jewish and other communities across this country”.

Israeli media have reported that the country’s justice ministry, which has been involved in talks with US justice officials, would probably not agree to his extradition because of the seriousness of the charges he is already facing in Israel.

His lawyer, Shira Nir, has said she intends to argue that the teenager – who it is claimed has autism and a brain tumour – should not be regarded as legally competent.

“It is unthinkable that a young man who is right in his mind with these mental skills will consider doing a fraction of what my client is charged with, and if found to be guilty of the allegations against him it is our duty as a society to above all provide him with the treatment he needs.

“I will ask the court for a sanction in lieu of jail time, as with every day that passes my client’s mental state deteriorates further.”

Kadar’s American-born mother said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 that her son was was unable to function in school due to a brain tumour.