The last of three attackers who were caught on video beating a Jewish man in Midtown nearly three years ago was sentenced Wednesday to three years in state prison — as their victim called out New York politicians for not doing enough to stem antisemitism.
Mohammed Said Othman, 29, of Brooklyn, copped in September to charges of second-degree attempted gang assault and third-degree assault as a hate crime for the beating, which left Joseph Borgen, 29, with a concussion, among other injuries.
Moments after the judge imposed the sentence, Borgen ripped local and state politicians for letting pro-Palestinian protests run free through the Big Apple.
“I got texts from my friends the other night … that protesters were marching on the Upper East Side and took over 87th and 2nd and were standing for 20 minutes,” Borgen said on a video posted to X by Inner City Press.
“Why aren’t they being arrested? They’re breaking the law openly,” Borgen said. “Mayor Adams, Governor Hochul, my congressman Jerry Nadler, who blocked my number even though I never spoke to him — where are you guys? What are you doing? I don’t understand.”
“Jews are afraid to go out with their yamakas with their families, it’s not fair, it’s not right,” he continued.
Borgen’s angry words tacked an exclamation point onto the end of the court cases that put three of his attackers — Said Othman; Mahmoud Musa, 25; and Mohammed Othman, 26 — behind bars for several years each.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that Borgen — who was beat down as the angry trio left a pro-Palestinian demonstration at about 7 p.m. on May 20, 2021 — was attacked simply because of his religion.
“These defendants violently targeted and assaulted another individual simply because he is Jewish,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“While this Office will always support the right to peacefully protest and engage in open dialogue, these multi-year prison sentences make clear that physically attacking someone because of their religion is never acceptable.”
The three men spotted Borgen that day as he walked down Broadway, wearing a yarmulke on his head, the DA’s statement said.
They confronted him and Borgen took off. But the men chased him down and threw him to the ground, Bragg said. That’s when Said Othman sat on his chest and punched him several times in the face.
Othman and Musa joined in, kicking and pepper spraying while screaming antisemitic slurs at their cowering victim — as Othman turned the spray on whoever tried to intervene and save Borgen.
Both men pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court back in September to second-degree assault as a hate crime, Bragg said.
Borgen called the pleas “great news” afterward — and said the jail time would send a clear message that “If you beat up a Jew in the streets, this is what’s going to happen. …You’re not going to get a slap on the wrist or a BS deal. You’re going to spend real time in jail.”
Musa was later sentenced to 7 years in state prison, while Othman was put behind bars for more than 5 years.
The melee broke out after the protests began in the Diamond District when a pickup truck full of Palestinian flag-waving protesters shot a firework from the vehicle into a crowd of Israeli activists who came out during renewed hostilities between the groups in the Middle East.
Video of the fight later went viral.
Not all the suspects suffered harsh sentences, however.
In January 2023, Borgen’s family blasted Bragg as a “do-nothing” crime fighter after he offered a cushy plea deal to one of the accused, 24-year-old Waseem Awawdeh, that put him in jail for just six months.
“It’s disgusting how Mr. Bragg calls himself a crime fighter, the man does nothing,” Joseph Borgen’s father, Barry Borgen, told The Post outside Manhattan Criminal Court.
“He offered people who tried to kill my son six months in jail,” he said. “It is a hate crime.”
Bragg’s office defended the sentence, and told The Post that Awawdeh joined the attack late and left early. But at his arraignment, prosecutors revealed he had expressed little remorse for the attack.
“If I could do it again, I would do it again,” he allegedly told a jailer following his arrest. “I have no problem doing it again.”
Awawdeh is still at Rikers, according to jail records.
He is slated for a June 2024 release.