Orlando man pleads guilty to anti-Israel bomb threats, attack on solar facility

Silas Morgan, Orlando Sentinel on Dec 21, 2024

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A Jordanian citizen living in Orlando pleaded guilty Friday to vandalizing a solar energy facility and threatening to bomb businesses that support Israel, the Department of Justice disclosed in a high-profile announcement.

Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 44, pleaded to four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility, the DOJ news release says.

Hnaihen faces up to 60 years in prison and has agreed to pay full restitution to his victims, according to the release. His sentencing is scheduled for April 16 at the federal courthouse in Orlando, court records show. He is currently in custody at the Seminole County Jail.

Court records show state he donned a mask and attacked multiple local businesses at night in June, including a McDonald’s in Maitland and Starbucks in Orlando, Winter Park and Daytona Beach Shores, smashing in their front doors and windows and leaving behind threatening letters.

He was arrested in July by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office after a multiagency investigation by the agency and FBI with help from the Orlando, Maitland and Winter Park police departments, an August news release from DOJ said. He was caught because of fingerprints he left behind on the letters, his cellphone location data showing him at the businesses and surveillance footage capturing his work truck in the vicinity of the businesses.

The arrest came at a time of heightened concerns about anti-semitic and anti-Palestinian threats in the U.S. driven in part by conflict in the Middle East. The nation’s two highest-ranking law enforcement officials weighed in on the plea, conveying the gravity of Hnaihen’s actions and threats.

“The Justice Department will fiercely protect the right of every person to peacefully express their opinions, beliefs, and ideas, but we have no tolerance for acts and threats of hate-fueled violence that create lasting fear,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the release.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in the release, “Violence, destruction of property, and threats are simply unacceptable. The FBI will work with our partners to pursue and hold accountable those who commit illegal and destructive acts and cause our citizens to fear for their safety and livelihoods.”

Hnaihen said in the letters addressed to the U.S government and left at businesses he vandalized that he would “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.” He demanded Biden stop supporting the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stop what he called the genocide in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into it, court records show.

“You trade in our democracy and use our money to ignite the wars and kill innocent people all over the world in order to steal their natural wealth such as oil, gold and many others, as happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebia … and it is currently happening in Gaza and Sudan,” one letter stated according to court records.

He left similar letters at a Florida Power & Light solar power facility in Wedgefield he attacked twice, in May and June, where he spent hours “systematically destroying solar panel arrays” during the second break-in, authorities said. He smashed panels, cut wires and targeted critical electronic equipment, causing nearly $500,000 in damage, the release said. He also left similar letters at an AmeriGas industrial propane distribution depot in Orlando which he broke into in July causing evacuation, records show.