Israel charges teenager accused of US bomb threats

Jerusalem : Prosecutors charged an Israeli-American teenager on Monday with making more than 2,000 threats against Jewish institutions, airlines, police stations and even a professional basketball team's plane, Israel's justice ministry said.

The charges follow a wave of bomb threats to Jewish institutions in the United States that helped spread fears over whether anti-Semitism was rising in the country.

A justice ministry statement said that the 18-year-old from the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon was also charged with extortion, money laundering, assaulting a police officer, drug trafficking and possessing paedophile pornography.

Among the threats he is accused of making was one against a plane flying the Boston Celtics US basketball team to a game and another against Delaware state senator Ernesto Lopez.

He is also suspected of making a hoax bomb call to Delta Airlines in February 2015 which led to an emergency landing, and another against an Israeli El Al flight over Switzerland.

The statement said Swiss and French warplanes were scrambled to escort the El Al plane and to shoot it down if it became evident that it would crash on Swiss soil.

The teenager is accused of being behind similar threats in New Zealand and Australia.

He was arrested on March 23 following an investigation that included the FBI and police forces from other countries.

His identity is under a court gag order in Israel, but the US Justice Department has named him as Michael Kadar.