By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-10-11 02:22:03 | Updated at 2026-10-11 03:06:35
1 hour ago
A Pennsylvania college professor has been indicted on a federal cyberstalking charge after prosecutors accused him of making months of anti-Semitic threats against a Jewish coworker and the coworker’s family, including disclosing their home address and threatening their infant child.
Guangtian Ha, an associate professor of religion at Haverford College near Philadelphia, was arrested Oct. 6 following a Sept. 30 indictment charging him with one count of cyberstalking. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Ha remains in custody pending an Oct. 13 detention hearing. The court has not yet decided whether he should remain detained pending trial.
According to prosecutors, Ha used four anonymous accounts on X to send more than 50 threatening messages between October 2025 and May 2026. FBI investigators said they linked the accounts to his home internet connection, cellphone, and Haverford College network.
Prosecutors said Ha admitted to creating and using the accounts during an FBI interview following his arrest.
Haverford’s President Wendy Raymond announced on Oct. 6 that Ha had been placed on administrative leave and barred from campus. He was already on sabbatical and was not teaching during the academic year, according to the president’s statement.
Dominic Mercier, the college’s editorial director, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 9 that Haverford had no further comment beyond Raymond’s statement.
Susan M. Lin, Ha’s defense attorney, did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.
Threats Against Coworker’s Family
The alleged harassment began in October 2025 when an anonymous account posted a Google Maps photograph of the coworker’s mailbox accompanied by an eyes emoji.
The coworker and spouse, who had three young children, asked Google to blur their home and installed additional security equipment, according to prosecutors.
The threats resumed in January. On Feb. 27, an account referred to a newly installed security camera.
“Blurring your home on google map and installing a security camera next to your mailbox won’t help,” the message stated.
The following day, the coworker’s spouse left home with their three children and stayed with relatives for approximately a week.
Other messages invoked Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, called for exterminating Jews, and threatened the family.
On April 15, an account posted the name of the coworker’s infant child, then about 7 months old, warning the parent to watch the child.
The family stopped allowing the children to play in the front yard or wait outside for the school bus. The spouse left with the children on two occasions, and the parents considered moving, prosecutors said.
Digital Evidence Linked to Professor
According to the detention motion, the four accounts were created using internet addresses assigned to Ha’s home.
Verizon records linked his cellphone number to 43 of 45 occasions when the accounts were accessed through Verizon Wireless internet addresses. Haverford supplied records indicating that a device accessing the accounts had authenticated to the college network using Ha’s email address.
Prosecutors alleged that Ha used anonymous email accounts and other techniques to conceal his identity.
They also described a separate account that began sending similar messages in late September, including an Oct. 5 post referring to the coworker’s children playing in the front yard.
Investigators had not identified who operated that newer account when the detention motion was filed. Prosecutors argued that restrictions on internet access would not adequately protect the family from further harassment.
Academic Career
Ha studied sociology as an undergraduate at Peking University since 2003, where he was named one of 10 Academic Rising Stars in 2007, according to a university announcement in May 2007.
He later earned a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, a school specializing in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
His scholarship has focused on Islam, ethnic identity, and political authority in China.
His 2022 book, The Sound of Salvation, examined religious chanting traditions among Sufi Muslims in northwestern China. It won the 2023 Clifford Geertz Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Religion.
Haverford’s Previous Anti-Semitism Lawsuit
In 2024, more than a year before the alleged cyberstalking campaign began, Ha’s public statements about Israel and Zionism were cited in a federal lawsuit accusing Haverford College of failing to address anti-Semitism.
In an amended complaint, plaintiffs cited social media posts attributed to Ha calling for Israel to be dismantled and comparing Zionism to Nazism and fascism. One post called for sanctions, boycotts, and attacks on Zionism.
In a January 2025 ruling, U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh addressed the posts but found that the plaintiffs had not adequately alleged that Haverford administrators with authority to address harassment knew about them.
Haverford settled the litigation in August 2026.
In an Aug. 7 statement, Raymond, the college’s president, acknowledged that members of Haverford’s Jewish community who supported Israel had been deeply hurt by “events that have transpired on our campus” since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, describing that as a failure by the institution.
Under the settlement, Haverford pledged that professors would not be permitted to discriminate against students or other members of the campus community because of their commitment to Judaism, Israel, or Zionism. The college said violations of its policies against discrimination, harassment, or bias would be subject to disciplinary action.
