Accused NJ white supremacists sentenced for attack on Egyptian men

8/7/2013

NEWARK, N.J. - Two accused white supremacists were sentenced today to prison terms for beating two men of Egyptian descent while shouting anti-Arab slurs at them on New Year's Eve 2011 in central New Jersey.

They men are members of Aryan Terror Brigade and plotted the attack during a holiday “meet and greet” party where they drank alcohol and listened to white supremacist music, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano sentenced one of the men, Michal Gunar, to 33 months in prison and the other, Kyle Powell, to 15 months in prison. Gunar, 29, of East Windsor, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in April to committing a hate crime assault and conspiracy to do so.

Powell, 24, of West Collingswood, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit a hate crime assault.

The men faced up to 10 years in prison on the assault charges and 5 years on the conspiracy charges.

With a third man, Christopher Ising, 31, of Waretown, New Jersey, they drove to an apartment complex in Sayreville intending to randomly assault non-white individuals, the prosecutor said.

Brandishing a knife, Gunar attacked two Egyptian men, pulling one of them from a car and punching him in the face and head, causing injuries, Fishman said. Ising assaulted one of the victims with brass knuckles, prosecutors said.

Two days after the attack, Powell received an ATB tattoo on his left arm symbolizing his acceptance into the international hate group with several hundred members, the largest concentration of whom live in New Jersey, prosecutors said.

“This office takes extremely seriously allegations of violence, threats and vandalism against Arab-Americans, Muslims and others threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, sex or orientation,” U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Rebekah Carmichael said in an emailed statement.

Powell's lawyer, Paulette Pitt, thanked the judge for the lenient sentence.

“We appreciate the thought that Judge Pisano took in imposing a sentence that balanced the serious nature of the offense against the mitigating factors of Kyle's comparatively minor role and his personal background,” Pitt said in an emailed statement.

Ising, a purported member of another white supremacist group, the Atlantic City Skins, pleaded guilty in February to the same charges as Gunar. His sentencing is scheduled for Friday.