Israel busts one other Iran-backed spy ring
Prosecutors in Israel said a husband and wife gathered intelligence on “key national infrastructure sites” inside the country, with both of them following a national security think tank staffer targeted for harm by Iran.
On Thursday, authorities identified the couple as Rafael and Lala Guliyev, both 32 and from Lod, 10 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Israel police and Shin Bet, Israel’s national security service, said the arrest was the latest in a string of espionage incidents involving Israeli citizens working on behalf of Tehran.
Authorities in Israel also identified another man, Asher Binyamin Weiss, who was indicted last week for allegedly tracking a nuclear scientist who was the target of an alleged Iranian assassination plot, according to The Times of Israel.
“Both the recent cases saw the suspects allegedly following security figures, photographing and filming their homes and cars, and then sending the material to Iranian handlers who were seeking to recruit assassins, according to prosecutors,” the newspaper reported.
The Guliyevs were recruited by an Iranian network focusing on immigrants to Israel from the Caucasus region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. They were approached by an Israeli of Azerbaijani origin named in court documents as Elshan Agyeiv, 56, The Times of Israel reported.
Prosecutors said Mr. Guliyev was in contact with his Iranian handlers since 2021. He received $600 for each day he followed the think tank staffer, spending hours filming and photographing her home and car, according to the indictment.
Mr. Weiss was indicted on charges of having contact with a foreign agent, passing information to the enemy and obstruction of justice. He is accused of taking videos of the nuclear scientist’s home and car. He sent the video footage to an East Jerusalem contact, who was told to carry out the assassination, The Times of Israel reported.
Mr. Weiss also was accused of carrying out acts of sabotage inside Israel, such as setting cars on fire and spraying graffiti. Prosecutors said he posted hundreds of posters in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan calling for civil revolt inside Israel.
He was later paid thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, The Times of Israel reported.
