Israeli security forces foiled another espionage attempt for Iran, according to a Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police statement on Tuesday.
A young Jerusalem resident was arrested last month on suspicion of carrying out missions for the Iranians and planning to carry out an attack in Israel. Ardler (Israel) Amouyal, 23, is suspected of being in contact with Iranian intelligence elements and carrying out sabotage missions in Israel at their direction for pay. Among other things, he carried out intelligence gathering tasks, photographed an address, sprayed graffiti, and more.
The Shin Bet and police investigation revealed that from October, Amouyal began contacting Iranian elements via social networks. In this context, he was in contact with a profile called Ariana. After an initial acquaintance between him and Ariana, he was transferred to a handler named John who activated him for missions. It also emerged that, despite the fact that Amouyal understood at the beginning of the relationship that John was an Iranian entity, he agreed to carry out various intelligence gathering tasks at his direction, including photographing inscriptions and spraying graffiti. He also filmed a page with the inscription “Making Peace” in various areas of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, sprayed graffiti commemorating dead Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Tel Aviv, photographed a number of houses and streets in Netanya and Jerusalem, and sent all his tasks to his operator.
Amouyal offered the Iranian operator to burn a police van and even to cut the electricity to the light rail in Jerusalem. He filmed different points in the light rail area in an attempt to find the power supplier and sent the video to his operator. Amouyal also purchased a GoPro camera and a memory card to document the missions, made a video of himself burning a car, conducted searches on social networks to buy a gun, suppressor, and materials to produce a bomb, and even watched videos about making explosive devices, all to carry out a terrorist attack in Israel. Subsequently, he was asked to recruit more people, including those with criminal backgrounds. In return for his activity, Amouyal received payment from his Iranian operator through cryptocurrency.
An indictment is expected to be filed in the coming days at the Jerusalem District Court in the city, while his remand in custody was extended until Friday.
“This investigation once again reveals the efforts of Iranian intelligence to recruit Israeli citizens to promote espionage and terror activities in Israel, and the response of Israeli citizens to carrying out tasks in the Iranian direction, while they are aware of the identity of the operators, all for financial consideration,” a Shin Bet official told i24NEWS.
Source » i24news