Matiullah Habib, 19, of Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced on Friday in the District Court of Maryland for Montgomery County to a 90-day suspended sentence and a fine of $300 for stealing an Israeli flag from an Orthodox synagogue in Silver Spring’s Kemp Mill neighborhood on Jan. 19.
The judge ruled that he also pay restitution to Young Israel Shomrai Emunah of Greater Washington, which is located near a kosher grocery store and three kosher restaurants in the heart of one of the most concentrated Orthodox neighborhoods in the country.
Habib, who admitted to pilfering the flag, was captured committing the crime on security camera at about 9:20 p.m., according to the charging document that the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office provided to JNS. Two suspects got out of a silver sedan at that time and took the flag, which the synagogue said cost $18, per the document. The video footage also showed a witness confronting the suspects.
Investigators tracked the car’s license plate to Habib, who voluntarily came in for an interview with police officers. When shown the video footage, Habib said it was his car, but that he had traded it in in February. He also said that he was driving for Uber Eats that night and would have to talk to friends to see if they knew anything about a flag theft, per the charging document.
On March 22, Habib returned to the police station and left a message that he had information about who stole the flag. On April 16, he came back and said that a friend, “Haroon Panjshiri,” told him to pull over, got out of the car and returned with the Israeli flag. “Habib advised that he did not know Panjshiri was going to steal the flag,” per the complaint.
After a Montgomery County Police Department detective read Habib his rights, the defendant said that he and Panjshiri were driving from Hyattsville, Md., to Panjshiri’s home in Woodbridge, Va., and along the way, the latter asked him to pull over, got out and took the flag. Habib told the detective that Panjshiri said he stole the flag for a school project.
The detective showed a map to Habib, who “was unable to explain how he ended up in front of Young Israel Shomrai Emunah,” per the complaint, which notes that Shomrai Emunah is nowhere near the route Habib described.
“If Habib had taken the route he said he drove, he would have never entered Montgomery County, Md.,” the detective wrote. “Based on Habib’s statements, your affiant believed Habib was again lying about his involvement in the theft.”
On Friday, Habib pleaded guilty and received the 90-day suspended sentence. He will be on supervised probation for 18 months and must complete 32 hours of community service. The defendant must also pay a $300 fine and restitution of $18—the latter of which is to be paid to the synagogue, John McCarthy, the state’s attorney for Montgomery County, told JNS.
“The judge also ordered that he not enter or be found near a synagogue,” McCarthy told JNS. “We are thankful to the members of the community who worked with our office to help ensure this case was brought to a successful conclusion.”
A spokesperson for the county’s attorney’s office told JNS that the maximum penalty for a misdemeanor hate crime is three years imprisonment.
“Given the details of the case, I would have liked to see the offender charged with a hate crime,” Jonathan Aghion, vice president of the Kemp Mill Civic Association, told JNS.
“The state’s attorney interprets hate crime statutes very conservatively,” Aghion told JNS. “Nonetheless, I was pleased that Habib pleaded guilty and owned up to his actions.”
