An investigation into a network of suspects, from a prosecutor to businesspeople, accused of helping Iranian intelligence in Turkey concluded with an indictment. The indictment asks for prison terms for 16 suspects who allegedly helped smuggle Iranian dissidents to Iran as they fled.
The suspects were detained in February after the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) discovered the inner workings of the network. Among them were I.S., a businessperson owning a defense company bearing his name, and D.Y., a prosecutor who was suspended from his job.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul has accused the suspects on a series of charges, from running and being members of a criminal organization to obtaining confidential information for the purpose of political or military espionage and limiting the freedom of an individual by force, threat and deception (a charge associated with abductions).
Prosecutors are asking for prison terms up to 42 years for D.Y. and prison terms up to 52 years and six months for I.S., with lesser prison terms sought for the others. A high criminal court accepted the indictment, while a hearing date is not scheduled yet.
The indictment names former Col. Mashali Firouze, smuggled by the Iranian operatives to Iran as one of the victims of the network, while his wife Arezou Saeidvand and son Arian Aminmavaneh are plaintiffs. Other people targeted by the network are former naval officer Mohammed Rezaei and economist Shahnam Golshani. The suspects’ attempt to help Iranian operatives smuggle Rezaei and Golshani had failed. Syed Mahdi Hosseini, Ali Ghahramanihajiabad and Shahab Hosseini are named in the indictment as suspects with outstanding arrest warrants for their involvement in abduction attempts as top names of Iranian intelligence. They are accused of assigning the job to an operative identified as Morteza Soltan Sanjari.
Prosecutors say Sanjari was tasked with finding “local partners” and “criminal groups” that might help them in smuggling dissidents out of Turkey. In his search, he met I.S. I.S. introduced himself both as a businessperson and diplomat and was code-named “Mikail-Angel.” He is accused of running a criminal gang, which included his girlfriend, his brothers and cousins.
D.Y., a prosecutor based in Istanbul, is accused of cooperating with I.S. and Iranian intelligence operatives between 2019 and 2022. He helped them to overcome “legal and bureaucratic obstacles,” prosecutors say. In one case, he allegedly gave his own car bearing the logo of the Justice Ministry to help them smuggle the dissidents.
The former prosecutor, whose name has come up in another investigation involving the shooting of a lawyer in Istanbul in January, is also accused of providing further assistance for reconnaissance of dissidents’ location and potential abduction with the aid of two former police officers who he was acquainted with.
In addition, he illegally supplied personal information about Iranian dissidents who are in temporary protection status as refugees to Iranian operatives, using his exclusive access to a judiciary database, prosecutors say. In return, he was paid $50,000, according to evidence in the indictment, which also says the prosecutor hosted Syed Mahdi Hosseini in his office once.
According to the indictment, Iranian operatives succeeded in abducting Mashali Firouze and his family from the western Turkish province of Denizli in February 2019. The next kidnapping targeted Mohammed Rezaei, who lived in the province of Yalova, but this attempt in September 2019 failed. Iranian operatives also paid an additional $100,000 to the prosecutor and I.S. for assistance in the abduction of Shahnam Golshani, but this attempt also failed, according to prosecutors who say the car used in abduction attempt belonged to D.Y.
Iranian intelligence already faces a string of accusations by Turkish authorities over several plots to abduct dissidents who took shelter in Turkey, as well as plans to kill an Israeli-Turkish businessperson.
