In a highly unusual case in Israel, a U.S. citizen has been arrested and indicted on suspicion of plotting terror attacks on Muslim holy sites.
The 30-year-old American, Adam Everett Livvix, was arrested last month and charged with possessing illegal weapons and planning a terror attack. This week, Israeli authorities indicted Livvix on the illegal weapons charge, as well as for overstaying his visa by more than a year.
He is also wanted in the United States on unrelated drug charges.
His lawyer, Gal Wolf, told the Associated Press that Livvix denies all charges against him, and added that his client underwent “extended interrogations” while being held in custody for eight days without access to a lawyer after his arrest.
Israeli police also allege that Livvix turned down an offer from a Palestinian to assassinate President Barack Obama during his visit to the Holy Land in 2013.
The country’s Justice Ministry said that later that year, Livvix told friends he had strong anti-Arab sentiments, and later cooperated with his roommate, an Israeli soldier, to obtain explosive material to blow up unidentified Jerusalem holy sites. The alleged plot was discovered in October.
Tensions are currently high in the region due to Arab-Jewish tensions in Jerusalem over access to a holy site where the al-Aqsa mosque now stands in place of biblical Jewish holy sites.
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