ED WHITE 底特律 —— 联邦当局周五表示，又有四人被指控参与针对密歇根大学官员的犯罪恐吓活动，试图迫使该校切断与以色列的财务往来。
ED WHITE DETROIT — Four more people have been charged with participating in a criminal intimidation campaign against University of Michigan officials to try to force the school to cut financial ties to Israel, federal authorities said Friday.
这份新起诉书是在八名亲巴勒斯坦活动人士因共谋罪被起诉近五个月后公布的。
The new indictment comes nearly five months after eight pro-Palestinian activists were charged with conspiracy.
起诉书描述了针对官员住宅、部分企业和底特律犹太联合会的威胁和破坏行为。
The indictment describes threats and vandalism at officials’ homes, some businesses and the Jewish Federation of Detroit.
调查人员强调了过去几年引起媒体关注的几起事件，包括有人在一名大学董事会成员的院子里放置假血腥尸体，以及2024年在时任大学校长圣塔·奥诺的住宅喷涂反以色列标语。
Investigators have highlighted several incidents that made headlines in the past few years, including fake bloody corpses that were placed in a university board member’s yard and the 2024 spray-painting of anti-Israel messages at the home of Santa Ono, who was school president at the time.
底特律联邦检察官办公室表示，四名新被告中有两人已被捕，将于周五首次出庭，另外两人未被羁押。六月份被起诉的八人均已表示不认罪。
Two of the four new defendants were arrested and will make their first court appearance Friday while the other two people were not in custody, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit said. The eight people charged in June have pleaded not guilty.
“从法老到希特勒再到哈马斯，那些恐吓犹太人的人一直是坏人。作为美国人，我们的职责是对抗坏人，”美国联邦检察官杰罗姆·戈尔根二世说。
“From Pharaoh to Hitler to Hamas, those who terrorize Jews have been the bad guys. As Americans, our job is to fight the bad guys,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said.
自以色列-哈马斯战争爆发以来，亲巴勒斯坦抗议者一直要求密歇根大学的捐赠基金停止投资与以色列有关联的公司。但该大学表示，其总捐赠基金中不到0.1%投资于可能包含以色列公司的基金。
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded that the University of Michigan’s endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. But the university has said it has less than 0.1% of its total endowment placed with funds that might include companies in Israel.
2024年，校园内的一个亲巴勒斯坦营地在持续一个月后被警方清理。大学方面称该营地构成公共安全威胁。
In 2024, a pro-Palestinian camp on campus was cleared by police after a month. The university said it was a threat to public safety.