Eight Pro-Palestinian Activists Indicted on Federal Conspiracy Charges at University of Michigan

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan indicted eight individuals — ranging in age from 21 to 28 and associated with the University of Michigan as students, former students, or employees — for an alleged coordinated criminal campaign spanning from October 2023 through at least April 2025. Prosecutors allege the group used encrypted messaging apps and social media to identify targets, surveil them, and coordinate nighttime attacks that included spray-painting homes and businesses with Hamas-associated symbols such as red inverted triangles and red handprints, throwing glass jars filled with butyric acid and dye through windows, caulking doors shut, and leaving threatening notes. Targets included university regents, the university president and provost, a police officer, business owners, and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which was vandalized on the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Two defendants, Zainab Hakim and Paige Feyock, face additional charges of witness intimidation after allegedly confronting a student they believed was cooperating with federal investigators; defendant Ahmet Korkaya, a former medical student, allegedly stated he would poison a victim and that a target's entire family was on his 'hit list.' The indictment, which was sealed in May to prevent flight or evidence destruction, was unsealed after all defendants were arrested in a multi-state operation spanning Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Supporters of the defendants rallied outside a Detroit courthouse, with some groups characterizing the arrests as political repression of pro-Palestinian activism.