Turkish Prosecutor Seeks 30-Year Prison Sentence for Accused in Plot to Abduct Iranian Citizen
About 20 days after news was announced that a group affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence was detained in connection with a plot to abduct one of the opponents of the Islamic Republic in Turkey, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Van Province in Turkey demanded the conviction of 11 defendants in this case to 30 years in prison.
Security forces in Turkey’s Van Province arrested individuals numbering between 11 and 17 people on September 24 on charges of planning to kidnap one of the opponents of the Islamic Republic residing in Turkey.
At that time, no further information was released about the person this group intended to kidnap, but in the new report on this case published by Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, March 2, limited information has been provided about him.
According to this news agency, the person whose name initials are given as “M.A.” was a former Iranian military official who had been residing in the port city of Zonguldak in Turkey for a long time.
According to Turkish intelligence organization MIT, Iranian intelligence officers attempted to establish a network in Van with a budget of 30,000 dollars to return “M.A.” to Iran.
According to Anadolu, members of this network, on the orders of Iranian intelligence officers, had proposed to “M.Y.,” the spouse of “M.A.,” to help abduct “M.A.” in exchange for receiving 10,000 dollars and had threatened him that if he refused this proposal, members of his family in Iran would be harmed.
Turkish intelligence officials and police from Van Province, on September 24, following the identification of the vehicle of “S.S.,” an Iranian citizen, and “M.A.A.,” a Turkish citizen, who were attempting to abduct “M.A.,” took action and arrested them.
Other members of this team include the owner of a defense industry commercial company, several officers, and a retired colonel named “Kamil Tashi.”
As Turkish media reported, the Islamic Republic had been monitoring “M.A.” for a long time and had sent an operative named “Ali Qahramanhajiabad” to Istanbul to execute the abduction operation and to appoint team members.
Based on investigations by Turkish security forces, this Islamic Republic operative returned to Iran after organizing the operation.
This report introduced an Iranian individual named “Morteza Sultan Sanglaji” who worked at the defense industry company “Bayy Saghilam” in the Tuzla district of Istanbul as one of the most important links in this operation.
The Islamic Republic has previously abducted a number of its opponents from neighboring countries such as Iraq and Turkey, or killed them in those countries.
For instance, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani was shot and killed in the Sisli neighborhood of Istanbul in November 2019.
Source: Radio Farda
