More than 11,000 sign letter to judge over sentencing of NYC student protestor

More than 11,000 people have signed a letter to a US judge asking for leniency in the sentencing of Tarek Bazrouk, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American student. Bazrouk pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges after physically assaulting pro-Israel Jewish protestors on three separate occasions between 2024 and 2025. The letter requests that he be sentenced to supervised release instead of more prison time, arguing that the nearly six months he has already served in a violent detention center would be compounded by a lengthy sentence. The CUNY student now faces a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.