US official says Israel evaded extradition of ‘Ashkelon hacker’

According to an official affidavit filed by Jeffrey M. Olson, a senior official at the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, Washington has been seeking the provisional arrest and extradition of Michael Ron David Kedar, an Israeli-American citizen, since April 2017. Kedar was wanted for sending thousands of hoax bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions, schools, and aircraft globally. The document confirms that Israel’s Justice Ministry received the initial U.S. request but never executed it, nor did it formally reject it. During bilateral meetings in 2019, Israeli officials informed their American counterparts that extradition was unlikely due to Kedar’s domestic prosecution and the 'prior prosecution' provision in the extradition treaty. Kedar was convicted in Israel in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years, later reduced to seven by the Supreme Court. Following his release and departure from Israel in June 2024, Kedar was arrested in Norway in October 2024 on a U.S. international warrant. Kedar’s former attorney stated that the affidavit confirms Israel effectively rejected the extradition request based on the principle of double jeopardy.