He Pleaded Guilty to a Hate-Crime Assault on an Israeli Tourist. He Got 90 Days — and Flashed a Victory Sign.
On the morning of September 16, 2026, a Manhattan courtroom closed out one of New York City’s most publicized antisemitic-assault prosecutions since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel — and the man at the center of it turned to the cameras and smiled.
Yehia Amin pleaded guilty in March 2026 to a single count of third-degree assault as a hate crime — a plea deal that collapsed an original seven-count indictment down to one. Judge Althea Drysdale sentenced him to 90 days in jail plus five years of probation. As deputies moved to take him into custody, Amin raised two fingers in a V toward the photographers in the gallery.
Asked by the judge, through an Arabic interpreter, why he was smiling, Amin gave an answer that outlasted the sentence itself: “I wanted to look good for the cameras.” It was the only explanation he offered for a gesture that court-watchers in the gallery read as a taunt.
- 90days in jailplus 5 years of probation — sentence handed down Sept. 16, 2026
- 5years probationthe supervision term attached to the 90-day sentence
- 7counts indictedDec. 5, 2023 grand jury indictment — stalking and assault as hate crimes, aggravated harassment
- 1count convictedthird-degree assault as a hate crime — guilty plea, March 2026
- Oct. 18, 2023the assaultnear Times Square, ~9:30 p.m. — Manhattan DA's indictment
- 62hate incidentslogged by NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force that November alone, +32% YoY — JTA
Amin stood before Judge Drysdale in a Manhattan court on September 16 to receive his sentence: 90 days in a New York City jail and five years of probation, far short of the exposure he faced under the original indictment. It was the final hearing in a case that had drawn sustained attention from Jewish community groups and court-watchers since Amin’s arrest nearly three years earlier. As the hearing wrapped and deputies moved to remand him, Amin turned toward the row of photographers in the gallery and raised two fingers in a V, holding the pose long enough for it to be captured and circulated.
Glenn Richter, founder of the New York Jewish Community Judicial Watch Group, was in the gallery watching. He had no doubt what the gesture meant.
“To me, it's a V for victory.”
Glenn Richter · Founder, New York Jewish Community Judicial Watch Group
Drysdale, through the interpreter, put the question to Amin directly: why the smile. His reply became the last word in a case that had taken nearly three years, and a diplomatic detour around six of seven original charges, to reach this courtroom.
The case traces to the evening of October 18, 2023 — eleven days after Hamas’s attack on Israel touched off a documented surge in antisemitic incidents across New York City. Around 9:30 p.m., near Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street in Times Square, Amin stalked a group of friends of a 23-year-old Israeli tourist and, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s indictment, shouted antisemitic slurs at them for several minutes. Among the phrases prosecutors attributed to him: “Hamas should kill more of you,” “May Allah kill all the Jews,” and “All Jews should die.” He then punched the tourist.
NYPD officers arrested Amin at the scene; according to the DA’s office, he continued shouting antisemitic remarks while in handcuffs. The attack was not an isolated data point. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force logged 62 antisemitic incidents that November alone — a 32% increase year over year, according to JTA’s December 2023 reporting — as the city absorbed the aftershocks of the war in Gaza. The 23-year-old victim, whose identity has not been made public in any of the outlets that covered the case, was targeted for no reason prosecutors have ever cited beyond the fact that he was traveling with Israeli friends near Times Square that night.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Amin on December 5, 2023, on seven counts: stalking as a hate crime, assault as a hate crime, and aggravated harassment, according to the Manhattan DA’s office. “Yehia Amin taunted and punched a tourist after stalking his friends and going on a vile antisemitic tirade that spanned several minutes,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (D-NY) said when the charges were announced.
The case took more than two years to resolve. In March 2026, Amin pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree assault as a hate crime — the deal that dropped the other six counts, including the stalking and aggravated harassment charges he was originally charged with but never tried on. The 90-day, five-year-probation sentence he ultimately received reflects that negotiated plea, not the exposure a jury verdict on the original seven counts could have produced. Announcing the original indictment, Bragg framed the office’s position in blunt terms.
“Violence stemming from hate and discrimination will not be tolerated in Manhattan. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to hold those that cause harm accountable.”
Alvin Bragg (D-NY) · Manhattan District Attorney
Manhattan District Attorney: Alvin Bragg (D-NY) — elected 2021, in office since January 2022; his office indicted Amin on seven counts in 2023 and negotiated the March 2026 plea to one.
NYC Mayor: Zohran Mamdani (D, DSA caucus) — sworn in January 2026; not involved in this prosecution, and no public statement on the sentence had been located as of publication.
No mayor, governor, city council member, or member of Congress has issued a public statement on Amin’s sentence as of publication. Structurally, that leaves this as a District Attorney’s case from start to finish: Bragg’s office brought the seven-count indictment in 2023, and Bragg’s office also signed off on the plea that reduced it to one nearly three years later.
The sentence circulated on social media within hours of the hearing.
Yehia Amin was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 5 years' probation after pleading guilty to assault as a hate crime for the antisemitic attack on Oct. 18, 2023.
There is no dollar figure attached to this case — no restitution, no fine, just 90 days behind bars and five years of supervision for a hate crime that began as a stalking campaign and ended with a punch, three years of slurs on the public record, and a courtroom gesture that read, to at least one longtime court-watcher, as a taunt rather than an apology.
The 90-day sentence sits far below the exposure Amin faced under the original seven-count indictment; the plea deal that got him there means he will never be tried — and cannot be retried — on the stalking and aggravated harassment counts a grand jury once found sufficient evidence to charge. What is certain is the timeline: a slur-filled assault eleven days after October 7, an indictment seven weeks later, a guilty plea more than two years after that, and a sentence delivered with a peace sign, not an apology, as its final public image. For a case that Bragg’s office once cited as an example of Manhattan’s response to a post-October 7 spike in antisemitic violence, the closing image is the one prosecutors did not choose: a defendant, sentenced and about to be handcuffed, smiling for the cameras.
