A pair of Persian radio broadcasters, grandmother of 7 who immigrated from Iran: These are the defendants who tried to recruit the Iranian agent

The pair of broadcasters who agreed to the agent's requests in exchange for information on life in Iran, to use it in their broadcasts.

The pressure on the defendant who knew MK Sheetrit, and the attempts to extract information about GSS members from the library that did not audition for "Tehran".

All the details of the indictments filed in the espionage case

Shani Frumkin, Shlomi Heller and Vicky Adamker

12/01/2022

Wednesday, 12 January 2022, 17:09 Updated: 19:18

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Indictments were filed today (Wednesday) against the Israeli citizens involved in the case of the attempted recruitment to Iranian intelligence.

The defendants, four women and a man from Beit Shemesh, Kfar Saba, Holon and Jerusalem, are accused of following instructions given to them by an Iranian intelligence operative, who contacted them via Facebook, even though some knew or suspected that he was acting on behalf of the Iranian authorities and its intelligence agencies.

In exchange for the information the defendants passed on to the intelligence operative, they received money and gifts from him.

The defendants are all Iranian-speaking Persians who have been in contact with the Iranian operator for several years.

"Whoever saw the defendants in the extension of detention - could not help but find a common denominator among them all - women aged 45-55, with a very similar background, with a very similar story," noted attorney Sarit Kotlowski, representing the defendant from Kfar Saba. " They immigrated from Tehran, not all of them working, some of them housewives, not 'strong' women.

"He knew what he was looking for, he turned to women who could be flattered and touched with the thinnest tones to lift this connection further."

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Iranian operator (Photo: GSS)

She said that the conversation between the Iranian activist and the defendant from Kfar Saba began against the background of his desire to immigrate to Israel and her longing for Tehran. "He presented himself as a Jew who was begging to come to Eretz Israel one day. The talks were spread over a period of time - not on a daily basis or anything close to it." According to her, in the talks, the Iranian did not hesitate to use the Hebrew language, and even used Hebrew words within the Persian text. She noted that all the women he approached spoke Persian.

The defendant that Kotlowski represents is a mother of seven and a grandmother. She was arrested in November, although her acquaintance with the Iranian spy began about two years ago, when he contacted her on Facebook. "The conversations began in a very innocent and friendly way when the background to the discourse was 'I will immigrate to Israel, we are still here.'

"He was able to reach out to people here in the country and touch emotion to create empathy," said Adv. Kotlowski. What he asked for could be found on Google, and it's not about things like military bases.

Military forces march outside Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2019 (Photo: AP)

Another defendant in the case is a resident of Jerusalem, a Persian-speaking woman who immigrated to Israel in 2001 from Iran. She kept in touch with Rambud via Facebook WhatsApp, which passed on to her throughout their acquaintance an Australian $ 1,204, and even asked to participate with her in business ventures and charities he would fund.

Initially, the connection between the defendant and Rambud, the operator asked her to write about the life of a community of Peres in Israel. He told her he would use the details for an article for journalists living in Iran and interested in the Persian Diaspora around the world. The defendant passed him these details, and wondered why he would not search for the information on the Internet himself, replied that he was interested in information from someone who lived in Israel and knew the details accurately.

Later, about a year ago, Rambud spoke with the defendant and offered her to open a funded business, and even offered her to expand the hairdresser she runs. These requests heightened the defendant's suspicion of Rambud's true identity and goals.

On another occasion, the defendant spoke with Rambud about her failure in canvas tests for the TV series "Tehran". Rambud asked the defendant to get the phone numbers of the producers of the series, but the defendant did not hold those numbers. Rambud expressed interest in the series, which deals with Israeli intelligence agencies, and asked the defendant if she knew GSS personnel. The defendant replied in the negative.

The operator requested the phone numbers of the producers of the series. From the TV series "Tehran" (Photo: courtesy here 11)

Two other defendants are a couple living in Holon and have three children.

Rambud contacted the couple via Facebook, then introduced himself as a wealthy Muslim bachelor from Tehran, interested in the Jewish religion and interested in immigrating to Israel.

Throughout their relationship, Rambud charged the defendant with filing assignments and asked for information.

Despite the defendant's knowledge that Rambud was acting on behalf of the Iranian authorities and its intelligence agencies, he sent him items of information, photos and videos in accordance with his requests.

In return, she received information from him about what was happening in Iran, in order to broadcast it to the audience in the media channels in which she and her husband broadcast.

The suspects filmed for the website operator in the country.

The Holon Mall (Photo: Official website, from Wikipedia)

Another defendant in the case passed details to Rambud, despite knowing that he was acting on behalf of the Iranian authorities.

For her activities she received about $ 4,500, which were sent to her from the operator and some were transferred to her through another defendant in the case.

These two defendants immigrated from Iran about 30 years ago and are Persian-speaking.

In talks with the Iranian operator, the former revealed that she had previously known MK Katie Sheetrit from the Likud party in her work. At his request, she provided him with information about the MK, and tried in his instructions to renew contact with her.

He tried to persuade her to do so by telling her that getting to know the MK would help her move forward in her work.

Tried to renew ties with her at the request of the Iranian.

MK Sheetrit (Photo: Creative Commons)

Advocate Ben-Zion Citrin, the attorney for the Holon couple accused in the case, said in response that "this is a difficult and tragic case, in which ordinary citizens got into a Kafkaesque story that could not be imagined at all and which swelled disproportionately. From the facts detailed in the indictment one can learn about the falsity of the claim of any security risk allegedly caused due to the acts attributed to them.

It was appropriate to end the affair in a completely different way and not in a delusional situation, where two innocent citizens, active in bringing Jews from Iran and opposed to the regime, would be arrested, heavily pressured, and prevented from seeing a lawyer for several days until they signed a confession. The details of the indictment show that if these are Iranian intelligence capabilities, Israeli citizens can sleep peacefully. Meanwhile, the lives of an entire family were completely destroyed. It has already been said that there are judges in Jerusalem. I don't think they will disappoint this time either. "

The woman's spokeswoman from Beit Shemesh, Advocate Roi Brauner, said that "this is a tragic and sad affair in which agents of a foreign country contacted innocent women who did not think at the time of contacting that the agent was a foreign agent. He introduced himself as a rich Jewish contractor. , Was interested in things related to Judaism and the State of Israel.

He looked like a completely Zionist man, even his references to her did not contain anything that might lead to suspicion that he is an agent of an enemy state, and that my client as a cleaning worker, a woman who has never been exposed to any information classified To her agents of foreign countries.

And I did not think there was anything beyond that. "

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