Scene of Monsey machete attack
Scene of Monsey machete attackReuters

Grafton Thomas, the suspect in a Hanukkah machete rampage that wounded five people in Monsey last month, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday on five additional hate crime charges, according to CBS News.

Federal prosecutors say Thomas targeted congregants celebrating the seventh night of Hanukkah at the Monsey home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg on December 28 because of their Jewish faith.

Celebrants were forced to defend themselves by throwing furniture, and one of the injured, 72-year-old Josef Neumann who was hit in the head, remains in critical condition.

He now faces a total of 10 federal hate crime counts, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said in a statement quoted by CBS.

Each count carries a potential sentence of life in prison. Thomas was already charged in a federal complaint with five counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs involving an attempt to kill. He was indicted Thursday on those charges as well as five additional hate crime counts of willfully causing bodily injury because of their religion.

"The United States remains today a beacon of freedom for persecuted religious people all over the world, and violent attacks against anyone because of religion are both illegal and against everything our nation stands for," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said in a statement.

US authorities have reportedly uncovered evidence that Thomas was looking for information on Nazi culture, swastikas, anti-Semitic ideas, locations of Jewish synagogues around him, and also asked the question: "Why did Hitler hate the Jews?"

Thomas’ lawyer, Michael Sussman, told reporters after the incident that his client has been hospitalized for mental illness and added he had requested a 30-day mental health evaluation after speaking to Grafton behind bars, who he claimed appears to be suffering from hallucinations and is allegedly hearing voices.