Ohio man charged for falsifying hate crime report against Palestinians

In Ohio, 20-year-old Hesham A. Ayyad, has faced charges after police found inconsistencies in his report of being targeted in a hate crime against Palestinians.

Ayyad claimed to the Cleveland branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that he was verbally attacked with anti-Palestinian remarks and physically assaulted by a car driver, as stated in a CAIR press release dated Oct. 23, which called for a thorough probe of the event.

However, North Ridgefield law enforcement authorities, upon investigating, concluded that Ayyad's account was fabricated, stating that the injuries he sustained were actually from a scuffle with his brother, the New York Post reports.

The initial report by Ayyad to CAIR described an incident where he was returning home after lunch near Olmsted Falls and North Ridgeville. He alleged that around 4:10 p.m., a car slowed down next to him, and the driver hurled insults like “Kill all Palestinians,” and “Long live Israel,” before striking him with the vehicle while shouting “DIE!”, as per CAIR's statement.

The statement included a photo of Ayyad lying in a hospital bed wearing a neck brace.

“We hope the North Ridgeville Police Department and the FBI will collect all the information they need to charge this individual with a hate crime,” Faten Odeh, CAIR-Ohio, Cleveland Interim Executive Director, stated at the time.

Ayyad told responding police officers he “had been struck by a vehicle and that the incident was racially motivated,” North Ridgeville police said in statement, and that Ayyad was taken to hospital.

After examining video surveillance from the vicinity, detectives determined that Ayyad's claims about being struck by the car and the racial slurs were false, stating that the “injuries sustained at the time of the incident were caused by a violent fight that the alleged victim had participated in with his brother, which was confirmed by area video surveillance.”

Ayyad was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with making false alarms, falsification, obstructing official business, domestic violence and assault.