An Israeli man has been charged over an alleged Iran-backed assassination plot against several senior government officials including the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A statement by Israeli police say the nation’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet and the country’s FBI equivalent Lahav 433 had worked together to expose an plot revolving around an Israeli Jewish businessman recruited by Iranian intelligence. It is alleged the plots looked to assassinate targets including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former PM Naftali Bennett, Israel’s defence minister, and the head of the Shin Bet agency.
The man, who was arrested in August, was formally charged this morning and police went public, revealing the details they said they had discovered of the plot, shortly afterwards. He was not formally named by the police statement but The Times of Israel names him as 73-year-old Moti Maman, of Ashkelon, Southern District Israel.
A police spokesman said on Thursday morning: “an Israeli citizen smuggled himself into Iran on two different occasions to meet with Iranian intelligence agents. He expressed a willingness to commit serious acts of terrorism on Israeli soil, including plotting the assassination of high-level officials… The suspect, who has since been apprehended sought large sums of money in exchange for providing intelligence and additional support to Iranian intelligence officials.”
ToI claims Maman demanded a million dollars from Iranian intelligence for work on the assassination plot and received cash for meetings. Beyond the killing plot, it is alleged he was also instructed to deliver money and weapons to other agents in Iran, perform reconnaissance, and to intimidate other Israelis who had been recruited by Iranian intelligence if they failed to carry out their assigned missions. The suspect is said to be a businessman whose work took him to Turkey, where he us alleged to have met with Turkish and Iranian figures who arranged for him to be smuggled to Iran for meetings.
It is asserted the plot to kill Netanyahu was “seen by the Iranian officials as revenge for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran”.
The allegations against Maman, who is reported to be cooperating with authorities, come at a time where Israel steps up operations against Iranian proxy Hezbollah, and as executive assassinations repeatedly make headlines. U.S. former President and again candidate Donald Trump has been the subject of two apparent assassination attempts just this year, and NATO member state Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot at close range in May.