An Arlington man was sentenced to five years in prison for hate crime charges after he allegedly threatened employees of the Arab American Institute because of their race and national origin, per the Department of Justice and court documents.

Prosecutors say William Patrick Syring, who is 61 years old, sent threatening emails to nine employees of AAI, a D.C.-based organization that aims to “nurture and encourage the direct participation of Arab Americans in political and civic life in the United States,” per its website. Many of the emails focused their ire on the president of AAI, James Zogby, though other employees were also threatened and harassed, per court documents.

The approximately 700 emails were sent from 2012 to 2017, according to the DOJ. Court documents say that Syring berated and threatened specific employees, calling them “devils” and “terrorists.” The emails also reportedly contained broadly hateful and xenophobic language against Arab Americans as a whole. In 2017, the emails culminated in five death threats against employees at AAI, according to the DOJ.

Syring is a retired foreign service officer who left the Department of State in 2007.

“Threats aimed to intimidate individuals based on their ethnic or racial origin are despicable violations of civil rights freedoms protected by our constitution,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband in a press release announcing Syring’s sentencing. “The Department of Justice will continue to fight to preserve the basic rights of people to live, work, and speak in their communities without the fear of hostility based on racism.”

Syring had previously been arrested on similar charges in 2008. That year, he pleaded guilty to sending four emails and leaving three voicemails to six AAI employees repeatedly, saying things like “death to Arabs” and threatening bodily harm, per his indictment. At his sentencing in that case, Syring reportedly expressed remorse for causing emotional distress to Zogby and the other employees, and said he would not continue to issue threats in the future. He was sentenced to a year behind bars followed by three years of supervision, along with community service and a fine.

But in March 2012, Syring allegedly started emailing once again, sending threatening and xenophobic messages to the same people he was arrested for threatening years earlier, his indictment says. Syring focused many of his email missives against Zogby, blaming him for the Orlando Pulse Night Club shooting and calling him a “terrorist” and an “anti-Semitic murderer” and accusing him of a “homophobic political agenda of terror and genocide.” Syring eventually threatened Zogby’s life, per court documents.

Witnesses testified at trial that AAI employees lived in fear that Syring would try to carry out his threats, per the DOJ. “This is a nightmare that’s haunted us for years,” Zogby told NPR after Syring was convicted earlier this year. “We just wanted it to end, and, hopefully, now this means it will end.”

Syring was convicted of 14 counts, including seven hate crime charges and seven interstate threats charges.