The Israeli-American who served seven years in an Israeli prison for targeting Jewish community centers and institutions in multiple countries with a wave of bomb threats in 2016 and 2017 was identified in Israel for the first time on Monday as Michael Kadar, age 27.
At the time of his conviction, Kadar’s lawyer said he had autism and was suffering from a brain tumor. He has been fighting for many months to avoid extradition to the US from Norway, where he is currently detained.
A minor at the time of some of his offenses, Kadar’s name had previously been under a gag order in Israel, though it was reported internationally and used publicly by the US Justice Department. The Ynet news site reported Monday that the Tel Aviv District Court had removed the local gag order and allowed the publication of details on Kadar’s medical condition.
Kadar’s lawyer, Nir Yaslovitzh, said the family wants his health information to be public knowledge, adding that Kadar is interested in being interviewed in the media about the “injustice” US prosecutors are trying to do to him.
The so-called “hacker from Ashkelon” admitted in court to making some 2,000 fake bomb threat calls to hospitals, airlines, schools and various Jewish institutions in the US and beyond out of boredom.
He was found guilty in June 2018 of hundreds of counts of extortion, spreading false information that caused panic, computer offenses, and money laundering, among other charges. That November, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined NIS 60,000 ($16,068), which ended up being commuted.
Since his release from prison in 2024, Kadar has been living with his family in Norway. Upon arriving in that country, he submitted a request for asylum. Norwegian authorities rejected the claim and detained him on an existing US extradition charge.
Kadar’s mental health has worsened during his time in jail in Norway, raising a concern that he will be declared insane, according to Ynet. The Foreign Ministry sent a message to its counterpart in Oslo expressing fear for Kadar’s life, the outlet said. When he was in Israeli prison, the hacker reportedly attempted suicide “dozens� of times.
Despite the Israeli gag order, his family had long shared his medical condition with Israeli media.
In a 2017 interview with The Times of Israel, Kadar’s parents said their son, while highly precocious intellectually, had suffered from the tumor from a very young age, possibly since he was born, and that it blocked his development, causing cognitive and psychiatric disorders throughout his life.
In 2020, after prosecutors accused Kadar of having tried to escape prison, his father told The Times of Israel that his son had had a psychotic episode. Prosecutors dropped the attempted-escape charge in exchange for Kadar pleading guilty to having phoned in additional bomb threats from prison.
Kadar’s parents have repeatedly insisted that their son is not responsible for his actions. Kadar told interrogators after his March 2017 arrest that he thought the bomb threats were part of a “gameâ€� and that he was “causing funâ€� for others.
According to authorities, Kadar made thousands of threatening calls, mostly to community centers and schools in the US, from December 2016 to March 2017, using an online calling service that disguised his voice and allowed him to hide his identity.
He also targeted hundreds of airlines and airports, malls and police stations, in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Britain, and tried to extort Republican State Senator Ernesto Lopez from Delaware.
In addition to the bomb threats, he offered his extortion services through an online black market. Court documents linked him to a post on the now-shuttered illicit marketplace AlphaBay, advertising a “School Email Bomb Threat Service.� The ad offered to send customized threats to schools for $30, plus a surcharge if the buyer sought to have someone framed.
His threats caused fighter jets to scramble, planes to dump fuel and make emergency landings, schools to evacuate, and numerous other chaotic episodes. In some cases, he allegedly threatened to execute children he claimed to be holding hostage. Police also found hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography on his computer.
According to the US Justice Department, if convicted in the US, Kadar could face a maximum jail term of 20 years for each of multiple hate crime charges; 10 years for each bomb threat; and five years for other hoax and cyberstalking charges.