Yeshiva World NewsSERIOUS SECURITY CASE: Young Teenagers Caught Spying For Iran
The State Attorney’s Office filed an indictment on Sunday with the Haifa District Juvenile Court against two minors, ages 14 and 16, from Kiryat Motzkin, who worked together to carry out paid missions for a foreign agent operating on behalf of Iran.
Among other things, they carried out photography missions, spray-painted graffiti and worked to recruit additional minors to perform missions for the agent.
According to the indictment, one of the minors made contact through a Telegram job-search group with a person who identified himself as “Daniel” and offered to pay him to carry out missions. The minor later brought his friend into the activity, and the two cooperated on some of the missions even after they suspected, and later knew, that the individual was an agent operating on behalf of Iran.
As part of the contact, one of the teens photographed various locations in Israel, including shopping malls in the Herzliya and Tel Aviv areas. During one of the missions, he also provided the agent with information about the number of entrances and exits at a mall and the number of security guards there.
After one of the photography missions, he deleted the videos he had sent out of concern that the agent would use them to carry out a terrorist attack.
The indictment further states that the two minors jointly spray-painted graffiti in the Kiryat Motzkin area and sent documentation of it to the agent. One of the minors later asked the agent whether he was Iranian, and the agent replied that he was connected to Iran. Despite this, their contact continued.
The two later cooperated in an attempt to expand the activity. One of the minors used his friend’s Telegram account and posed as a soldier in Unit 8200 in an effort to obtain additional missions. In addition, after the agent asked them to recruit more people, he worked to establish a Telegram channel and asked his friend to add teenagers who would be willing to carry out “high-risk” missions.
They received payments totaling hundreds of shekels for their activities, including through cryptocurrency.
The indictment charges one of the minors with contact with a foreign agent, three counts of providing information for the benefit of the enemy, and defacing property. The second minor is charged with assisting contact with a foreign agent and defacing property.
The court prohibited the publication of any details that could identify the minor defendants.
According to police, the investigation began with the dramatic arrest of one of the teenagers at Ben Gurion Airport upon his arrival in Israel, on suspicion of espionage and contact with a foreign agent.
The investigation revealed that the initial contact was made while the suspect was searching for work online. The foreign agent initially recruited the teenager using a gradual, step-by-step method, assigning him tasks that appeared “innocent,” such as distributing flyers, before later demanding that he fully identify himself through photographs.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)