A Jordanian citizen living in Florida has been arrested and charged for allegedly carrying out multiple attacks on businesses in Orlando, as well as a solar energy facility, based on their perceived support for Israel, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, 43, allegedly made numerous threats to carry out mass violence and at one point went through with an attack in late June on a solar power generation facility in Wedgefield, Florida, where he spent hours destroying solar panels.
The attack “bore signs of premeditation and sophistication,” according to prosecutors, adding: “For example, whenever Hnaihen cut a wire, he would cut so close to the panel that it was impossible to splice in a new wire, permanently decommissioning the entire panel. And as Hnaihen worked across row after row, he identified and selectively destroyed the lead panel in a daisy-chained series of panels, taking the entire chain offline.”
The attacks on the solar panels are estimated to have caused more than $700,000 in damages, prosecutors said.
Hnaihen began targeting various businesses in the Orlando area in June, prosecutors said, wearing a mask and placing “Warning Letters” after smashing doors and windows at businesses. The letters were addressed to the U.S. government and included a threat to “destroy or explode everything here in whole America. Especially the companies and factories that support the racist state of Israel.”
Hnaihen was identified and arrested on July 11 after placing another warning letter at an industrial propane gas depot in Orlando.
Further heightening concerns, prosecutors said Hnaihen attempted to purchase a gun and ammunition in February and lied on paperwork stating he was not a foreign citizen — which the government says “fortunately” was discovered to be false during the background check process so he never obtained the gun.
Hnaihen entered a not guilty plea to the charges during an arraignment hearing on Monday, court records show. At a detention hearing on Wednesday and is being held pending trial, according to the Justice Department.
He faces four counts of threats to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility.
“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. “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.”
ABC News has reached out to the attorney representing Hnaihen for comment.
