Two residents of the northern Druze village of Mas’ade are suspected of carrying out surveillance missions on behalf of Iran’s Quds Force, the Shin Bet and police said Friday.
The suspects, Bassem and Tahrir Safadi, a father and son, were arrested in November on suspicion that they were “recruited by Iranian elements and committed crimes of espionage and contact with a foreign agent during war,” the Shin Bet said.
The investigation found that Tahrir, 21, a software engineering student, was involved in recent years in surveillance missions for Iran and its regional proxies, at the request of his father, Bassem.
The Shin Bet said Tahrir would collect information on IDF activity in the Golan Heights, which was then handed over to Hussam as-Salam Tawfiq Zidan, a journalist with the Iranian state-owned Al-Alam News Network.
Zidan lived in Damascus and simultaneously worked for the Palestine division in the Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to the Shin Bet. The Palestine division is responsible for aiding Palestinian terror groups in carrying out attacks.
Tahrir and Bassem were both instructed by their Quds Force handler Zidan to carry out various missions, including taking photos of troops, tank movements, equipment and other details, the security agency said.
On Friday, an indictment was filed against Tahrir Safadi, accusing him of “grave crimes of espionage.” His father, Bassem, will be held in administrative detention due to “the absence of a criminal proceeding alternative, and given his high risk to state security and public peace,” the Shin Bet said.
“The investigation of the case revealed once again the fact that elements of the Axis, led by Iran, act to advance terror activity in Israel and to exploit residents of Israel for espionage activities,” the agency said.
The Shin Bet and police added that they view the case, and any other contact by Israelis with Iranian elements, “gravely.”
Law enforcement agencies have in recent months announced a series of Iranian espionage plots involving Israeli citizens.
In some, Tehran tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions on its behalf.
In other cases, individuals are alleged to have knowingly operated on its behalf for monetary gain.
In September, seven Jewish Israelis were arrested on suspicion of spying on security figures and IDF bases for Iran. They were accused of collecting information for their Iranian contacts about several Israeli citizens, including a senior security figure, and may have been part of a plot to ultimately assassinate the figure.
That same month, a man from the southern city of Ashkelon was arrested on allegations that he was smuggled into Iran twice and received payment to carry out missions on behalf of Tehran, and was recruited to assassinate either Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet.
Then, on October 14, a man and his 18-year-old partner, both from Ramat Gan, were arrested on charges that they carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an Iranian agent.
On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel who allegedly acquired a weapon in order to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s behalf.
On October 22, seven East Jerusalem men, six of them Israeli citizens, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and plotting attacks in Israel.
Those recent cases came after authorities in January uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
Source » timesofisrael