2 IDF aircraft mechanics charged with spying for Iran, leaking fighter jet info |
Two Israeli Air Force technicians were charged on Thursday with spying on behalf of Iran, including providing information on fighter jets and military facilities, Israeli authorities announced.
An indictment filed by military prosecutors on Thursday morning accused the pair, who served as F-15 aircraft mechanics at the IAF’s Tel Nof Airbase, of a series of “security offenses on behalf of Iranian intelligence elements.”
One soldier was charged with aiding an enemy in wartime, providing information to an enemy, facilitating contact with a foreign agent, and additional offenses. The second soldier was charged with contact with a foreign agent, providing information to an enemy, and other offenses.
In a joint statement, the Shin Bet security agency, the IDF, and the police said that the two technicians claimed in their interrogation that contact with the Iranian handlers was severed after they refused to carry out tasks involving weapons.
“However, even after the contact was cut off at the initiative of the handler, they did not cease attempts to renew contact, for the purpose of financial gain,” the statement said.
According to the indictment, over the course of several months, the two soldiers “maintained contact with Iranian intelligence elements and carried out various tasks under their direction in exchange for money.”
The indictment also said that one of the soldiers transferred to an Iranian agent “materials from his military training relating to fighter aircraft systems, as well as documentation of facilities and areas within a military base.” The Kan public broadcaster reported that this included a diagram detailing the engine of an Israeli aircraft, as well as photographs containing the face of an aviation instructor.
Kan also reported earlier that the two soldiers were allegedly enlisted by an Iranian agent to gather intelligence on former IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. However, this was not confirmed by authorities in the statement.
Eight other soldiers serving at the base were reportedly suspected of having known about the alleged espionage without reporting it.
After the incident was uncovered, the commander of Tel Nof convened his soldiers for a discussion on information security, in which he divulged that he had been summoned by the Shin Bet over the affair, according to the Kan report.
The investigation was carried out jointly by the Shin Bet, Military Police, and Israel Police. In the joint statement, the authorities said they “again warn Israeli citizens, including soldiers, about the very act of maintaining contact with foreign elements from enemy states, let alone carrying out tasks for them in exchange for payment or any other benefit.”
The alleged spying joins a long string of similar scandals in which ordinary Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out tasks, usually intelligence gathering and vandalism, at the behest of Iran-linked agents they met online.
Iranian agents usually start out their recruits with relatively mundane tasks such as vandalism or the filming of public locations, which then escalate into more severe, sometimes even violent offenses.
On Monday, two young men from central Israel were indicted on espionage charges after allegedly maintaining contact with an Iranian intelligence agent. One of them had already bought a ticket to Dubai where he planned to meet his handler, prosecutors claimed.
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