New Jersey Man, 19, Gets 15 Months in Prison for Online Manifesto Threatening Synagogue Attack

A 19-year-old Middlesex County man was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for sending a manifesto over the internet that threatened an attack on a synagogue and on Jewish people, officials announced.

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said Omar Alkattoul, of Sayreville, had earlier pleaded guilty to an information charging one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce. The offense took place on or about November 1, 2022. U.S. District Judge Christine P. O'Hearn imposed the sentence in Camden federal court. She also ordered three years of supervised release.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, Alkattoul used a social media application on November 1, 2022, to send one person a link to a document titled "When Swords Collide." He admitted to that person that he had written it. Officials said he also acknowledged that he was targeting a synagogue. In the document, he wrote, "It's the context of an attack on Jews."

A second individual told investigators that Alkattoul had also sent the document to at least five other people through a different social media application.

Sellinger said the defendant admitted using social media to send a manifesto containing a threat against a synagogue, motivated by hatred of Jews. "This prompted a state-wide alert and put the community on edge," he said.

"No one should be targeted for violence or with acts of hate because of how they worship," Sellinger said. He added that protecting communities of faith and places of worship is at the heart of his office's mission, and that the sentence holds Alkattoul accountable for his hateful words.

James E. Dennehy, the FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge, said that "threatening someone's life because of who they are or what they believe is simply unacceptable in civilized society." He said Alkattoul admitted breaking laws enforced to protect communities from hate and threats of violence.

Dennehy also urged the public to help law enforcement. "Now more than ever, the FBI and our law enforcement partners need the public's help reporting anything they see," he said, so that threats do not turn into physical attacks.