WarSclerotic

Ali Mansuri, 58, who was arrested in September for allegedly trying to set up an Iranian spy ring in Israel, was indicted Sunday on several counts of aiding an enemy state and espionage. Mansuri has denied the allegations against him.

According to the indictment, filed with the Lod District Court, Mansuri was meant to lay the groundwork for the arrival in Israel of what the prosecution described as a high-ranking Iranian operative.

The court remanded Mansuri to police custody until Oct. 20. His lawyers, Michal Orkabi and Anat Yaari, of the Public Defender’s Office, have asked the court to have the indictment translated into Farsi. The translation will be read into the record at Mansuri’s next hearing, in two weeks.

According to available details, Mansuri told his interrogators that he was blackmailed by the Iranians. He said he had left Iran more than 20 years ago, and that at the end of a 2012 visit back to the Islamic republic, Iranian authorities detained his wife and son and refused to let them leave unless he set up several businesses in Israel and foster relationships in the Israeli business community, allegedly so they could later serve for intelligence gathering.

Mansuri lived in Turkey until 1997, when he became a businessman and moved to Belgium. He received his Belgian citizenship in 2006, and subsequently changed his name to Alex Mans.

He was arrested by Shin Bet security agency officers at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Sept. 11, after a lengthy covert investigation.

The investigation found that Mansuri was recruited by Iranian Intelligence about two years ago and that his handlers, identified in the indictment as Iranian intelligence agents Haji Hamid and Haji Moustafa, had ordered him to “actively pursue opening a business in Israel for the purpose of using it as a front for Iranian intelligence operations, as well as support the activities of a third party from Iranian intelligence, who was scheduled to arrive in Israel at a later date.”

The prosecution further argued that before every visit to Israel, Mansuri had visited Iran, where he was briefed by his handlers, and that he attempted to hide his visits to Iran by traveling with European airlines.

While in Israel, Mansuri “committed numerous acts that could potentially compromise national security, including taking pictures of multiple areas at the Ben-Gurion International Airport, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and a secure defense facility,” the indictment said.

The prosecution also argued that Mansuri had incriminated himself in the act attributed to him during his interrogation.

Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Sunday that authorities arrested four workers in an alleged sabotage plot involving one of the country’s nuclear facilities, hinting that authorities were looking at suspected international links such as Israel.

Salehi, who was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency, gave no further details on the alleged plot or the possible target, but said authorities had monitored the suspects and made the arrests at “exactly the right time.” Later, Salehi told state TV that authorities had foiled “several cases” of similar sabotage attempts in the past “two or three weeks.” He also did not elaborate.

“Hostile countries are not interested in finding way out of current situation and they are trying to block agreement on the nuclear case though acts of sabotage,” Fars quoted Salehi as saying.

Salehi also noted that Iran has upgraded its protective measures against cyberattacks that have “continued” over the past years.