As part of a joint operation of the Shin Bet, Yahbal and Lahav 433, an Israeli citizen was arrested during August on suspicion of attempting to assassinate the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, and the head of the Shin Bet, under Iranian direction as revenge for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.
The investigation revealed that Motti Maman, a businessman from Ashkelon, lived in Turkey for an extended period and maintained business and social connections with individuals of Turkish and Iranian origin. As part of these connections, Maman agreed, through the mediation of Turkish individuals Andrei Faruk Aslan and Junaid Aslan, to meet with a wealthy businessman living in Iran named Edi, to promote business activity.
His interrogation revealed that during August, he entered Iran for the second time, being smuggled through the border crossing hidden in a truck cabin. While staying at Edi's home in Iran, he met additional Iranian intelligence officials and was asked by them to carry out terrorist activities for Iran on Israeli soil, including advancing assassination attempts on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, or Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.
The Iranian intelligence officials also asked to examine the possibility of assassinating other senior figures, such as former Prime Minister Mr. Naftali Bennett and other public figures, as revenge for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil in July, which was attributed to the State of Israel by Iranian authorities.
Maman, for his part, demanded an advance payment of one million dollars before carrying out any action.
The next day, the Israeli businessman held another meeting with Iranian intelligence officials during which they repeated their offer to assassinate senior officials, examined the possibility of him planting money at points across Israel for others, acting to locate Russian and American individuals for the purpose of eliminating opponents of the Iranian regime in Europe and the United States, and recruiting a Mossad agent who would become a "double agent".
During this meeting as well, Maman demanded an advance of one million dollars, but the Iranian agents refused his request and informed him that they would contact him in the future. Before leaving Iranian soil, he received 5,000 euros from Edi and the Iranian intelligence representative for his participation in the meetings.
Eyal Beserglik, Moti Maman's attorney stated: 'We have just received the indictment along with a request for detention until the end of proceedings. We have not yet been exposed to the investigative material, so at this stage it is difficult to delve into the details of the case. It can already be said that this is a person who has greatly assisted the security services of the State of Israel, whose children serve in the security forces, and who, in the course of his business, made an error in judgment. It is not for nothing that the indictment was not filed for other offenses. My client has cooperated and continues to cooperate fully with the authorities.'"
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