Turkey: We Arrested 11 Members of the Network that Kidnapped Habib Asioud

According to this report, Habib Asioud, who had been living in exile in Sweden for the past 14 years, disappeared after entering Turkey.

According to a TRT correspondent, MIT’s rapid and extensive investigation into the disappearance of Habib Asioud led to the discovery and dismantling of this kidnapping network linked to Iranian security institutions.

Evidence obtained by Turkey’s MIT shows that Habib Asioud was ensnared through a drug smuggler named Zendashti, who was a collaborator under the control of Iran’s security apparatus and exploited his ex-wife (S. Saberin).

Asioud’s ex-wife lured Habib to Istanbul with the promise of a 100,000-euro loan. On October 9, Habib Asioud went to an address in Beşiktaş, Istanbul near a gas station. At the meeting point, he got into a minibus, thinking his ex-wife was inside. However, upon boarding the minibus, he lost consciousness and was then abducted.

The kidnappers, who were members of the Zendashti network, took him to the city of Van in eastern Turkey and then transferred him to Iran.

In the TRT correspondent’s report, it was stated that Asioud had been under surveillance by Iran’s intelligence organization while living in Sweden due to his advocacy for the rights of Arab minorities in Iran and his role leading the “Arab Liberation Struggle Movement of Ahvaz.”

The report noted that the eleven arrested individuals are Turkish citizens.

Regarding Zendashti, it was stated that he had been sentenced to death in Iran in connection with a drug trafficking case in 2007, but later fled to Turkey.

The Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office subsequently issued an indictment against this individual in which he was accused of crimes including drug trafficking, forming an armed criminal organization, kidnapping, and murder.

According to Turkish media sources, while the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office had sought the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Zendashti in 2018, he suddenly disappeared and subsequently entered Iran, where he continued his “criminal” activities.