Student facing jail after 'joke' about Israel prime minister Netanyahu
A student at Florida International University is facing over a decade behind bars after talking about Benjamin Netanyahu and the prospect of an attack in her university group chat.
Gabriela Saldana, 23, was arrested in the early hours of April 17, after she allegedly made a threat against the FIU’s Ocean Bank Convocation Center, hours earlier.
According to the International Business Times, FIU campus police investigated two separate messages sent to a WhatsApp group with 215 students.
There, Saldana is said to have made a ‘joke’ involving Netanyahu, which now has her facing a second-degree felony charge in court.
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The student stood before Judge Mindy S. Glazer after being detained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where the outlet reported her bail was set at $5,000. She faces a charge of writing threats to kill or do bodily harm under the Florida Statute 836.10.
7News reported that the student was arrested after sending students a message where she appeared to wish for ‘bonbons’ to be dropped on the university building.
However, it seems that ‘bonbons’ has been determined to mean ‘bombs’.
The message said: “[Israel’s Benjamin] Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us Capstone students in Ocean Bank Convocation Center.”
While in court, a FIU Police officer also claimed she wrote afterwards: “There is going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center and it was going to be Jonathan’s fault.”
This references another student in the chat. It appears Saldana wanted the event rescheduled.
But when students allegedly didn’t take the messages as something to laugh at, Saldana allegedly wrote that she ‘wrote a dumb joke that should not have been made'.
Appearing in front of Judge Glazer, she was told of the impact her words had.
“I can understand your position when you are saying this is a joke, but to an objective person, it’s not a joke, and it would be enough for probable cause. I’m not saying it’s enough for beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t know if the state is going to be able to prove it in trial, but for purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause,” said the judge.
FIU has since released its own statement on the incident, as reported by Local 10: “An FIU student has been arrested for making a credible and imminent threat of violence at a planned university event.
"According to the investigation, the suspect identified a specific date, time and venue. Given the ongoing investigation and federal student privacy laws, FIU has no further comment. There is no further threat to the university community.”
Britt Jones