Israel arrests businessman on suspicion of collaborating with Iran
Israeli police have arrested an Israeli on suspicion that Iranian intelligence recruited him to plan the assassination of senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, less than two months after the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader accused Israel By standing behind the assassination of Haniyeh, threatening to inflict the “severest punishment” on her.
On Thursday, the police and the intelligence service announced that an investigation revealed that “Iranian intelligence recruited an Israeli citizen to assassinate Israeli figures and he was smuggled twice into Iran and received money in exchange for carrying out missions.”
The statement added that Defense Minister Yoav Galant, head of the Internal Intelligence Service Ronen Bar, and other senior Israeli officials were among those targeted.
According to the court file seen by AFP, The detainee His name is Mordechai Maman, he is from Ashkelon and was born in 1952, without providing further details.
Court documents say Mamman has been in custody since August 29.
The joint statement indicated that the Israeli citizen is “a businessman who has lived in Turkey for a long time” and has business and social contacts and relations with Turks and Iranians who introduced him to an Iranian businessman named “Edi.”
He added that the suspect entered Iran through the land border with Türkiye for the first time in May 2024 to meet “Edi,” who was “facing difficulties leaving” Iran.
He explained that he also met a person called “Hajja” who presented himself as an Iranian security agent.
million dollars
The police statement said that while in Iran, the Israeli was offered to carry out security missions on behalf of Iran in Israel.
These missions included transporting “money or a gun,” photographing “various crowded places,” and threatening Israelis previously recruited by Iran to force them to comply with orders.
On his second visit to Iran in August, which he arrived in by smuggling in a truck, the Israeli businessman was asked to carry out assassinations of prominent figures in Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
Among the figures he was asked to investigate the possibility of assassinating was former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The Israeli was also asked to perform additional tasks, including recruiting an agent for the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, to become a “double agent.”
According to the statement, the Israeli businessman requested an advance payment of $1 million to carry out the missions, but his request was rejected, and he was given 5,000 euros for his participation in the meetings and was informed that he would be contacted in the future.
“This is a very serious case and illustrates the enormous efforts made by Iranian intelligence agents to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel,” said a senior official in Israel’s internal intelligence agency, Shin Bet.
He added that at a time when “Israel is fighting a war on several fronts,” the suspect’s movements “helped Iran and its intelligence services in their campaign against Israel.”
Maman’s lawyer was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying he admitted to making an “error of judgment” and was cooperating with the investigation.
Israeli media also quoted Maman as saying, “It is good that I was arrested, and I do not know where I could have ended up.”
Israel has been waging a war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 7, which began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel that has killed 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. This number includes hostages who died while being held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel responded with a devastating bombing campaign and ground assault on Gaza, killing at least 41,272 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations says most of the dead were women and children.
