A Jewish Israeli civilian, Moti Maman, has been arrested after allegedly being recruited by Iran to advance an assassination plot targeting Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet.
Moti Maman, a 73-year-old businessman from the southern city of Ashkelon, was detained after the Shin Bet revealed details of the investigation on Thursday.
He was alleged to have had connections with Turkey and attended at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.
The arrest took place last month, according to a joint statement by Shin Bet and the Israeli police.
And Shin Bet said the latest arrest showed the efforts Iran was making to recruit Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist attacks in Israel.
Maman was quoted by Channel 12 news as telling investigators, “It’s good that you arrested me, I don’t know where it could have gone.”
A source with knowledge of the details of the investigation told the network Maman has not denied the allegations. While Maman’s lawyer said his client made “an error of judgment” and is fully cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
The statement from Shin Bet revealed the plot begun in April this year when Maman agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.
After being told by representatives that the businessman, identified only as Adi, could not leave Iran the Israeli was smuggled into Iran from eastern Turkey, where he met Adi and others, including a man identified as an Iranian security official, the statement said.
The Iranians asked that he carry out a series of tasks with some threatening other Israeli civilians operating on behalf of Iran who did not carry out the requested missions.
He returned to Israel but went back to Iran for a second time in August, smuggled in a truck, the report claims.
On the second visit, this is where allegedly Iranian officials asked Maman to carry out terrorist attacks for Iran and made proposals for assassinating Netanyahu or Gallant or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.
Maman asked for a payment of $1 million (£842,000), but Iranian officials declined the offer and instead paid him 5,000 euros (£4200) for joining the meetings.
This was announced hours after the second wave of pagers and walkie-talkies exploding on Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon which left 32 dead and injured thousands.
