A 40-year-old man with a long criminal record was arrested Friday in Brno, Moravia, in connection with anonymous telephone calls threatening to attack synagogues and other Jewish institutions unless the government immediately broke diplomatic ties with Israel.
His calls were taken seriously because the caller said he would use weapons recently stolen from a police academy.
According to the police, who did not disclose the suspect’s identity, he has four previous convictions for criminal offenses but no connection with Palestinian or other foreign organizations.
Nor can he help recover the 70 submachine guns and 12 pistols stolen three weeks ago from the police academy in Holesov, southern Moravia, the police said.
The arrest was made six days after the first telephone threat was received by the Czechoslovak News Agency in Brno.
The caller said the attacks on Jews would begin on Jan. 17 unless his demands were met. They included suspension of direct flights to Israel and denial of transit privileges to Israel-bound Jews from the former Soviet Union.
The caller said he represented the “Marxist People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine” and referred ominously to the Dec. 23 car-bomb attack on a busload of Israel-bound immigrants in Budapest, Hungary.
The police said the suspect is disgruntled with the social security system and wants publicity. He has been charged with attempted extortion.
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