DOJ: Jordanian citizen in Orlando made threats, damaged businesses for supporting Israel

ORLANDO, Fla. — The United States Department of Justice announced the arrest of a Jordanian citizen living in Orlando Thursday, accused of threatening to use explosives and causing hundreds of dollars in damage to an energy facility in protest of what he perceived to be support for Israel.

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43-year-old Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen is charged with four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility for targeted attacks on businesses in the Orlando area that began back in June.

According to the Department of Justice, Hnaihen wore a mask and operated under the cover of darkness as he smashed storefronts and left behind multiple “warning letters” addressed to the United States Government, making political demands and threatening to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories” that support what he called the “racist state” of Israel.

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Hnaihen is accused of breaking into a solar power facility in Wedgefield in late June and spending hours “systematically” destroying solar panel arrays, cutting wires, and targeting critical electronic equipment, causing more than $700,000 in damage.

Investigators say he left two more copies of his warning letter at the site.

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Hnaihen was arrested on July 11 through a joint investigation by the FBI and Orange County Sheriff’s Office after they say he left another warning letter at an industrial propane gas distribution depot in Orlando threatening to “destroy or explode everything.”

“We allege that the defendant threatened to carry out hate-fueled mass violence in our country, motivated in part by a desire to target businesses for their perceived support of Israel,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the arrest. “Such acts and threats of violence, whether they are targeting the places that Americans frequent every day or our country’s critical infrastructure, are extremely dangerous and will not be tolerated by the Justice Department.”

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If convicted, Hnaihen faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for each of the four threats and a maximum of 20 years for the destruction of an energy facility charge.

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