Turkish prosecutors demand 30-year prison sentences for suspects in plot to kidnap Iranian citizen
About 20 days after the announcement that a group affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence had been arrested in Turkey in connection with a plot to kidnap an opponent of the Islamic Republic, the Turkish Van Provincial Prosecutor's Office demanded that 11 defendants in the case be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
On October 2nd of this year, security forces in the Turkish province of Van arrested an estimated 11 to 17 people on charges of planning to kidnap an opponent of the Islamic Republic living in Turkey.
At that time, no other information was released about the person the group was trying to kidnap, but in the new news about the case, published by the Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, March 1, little information was given about him.
According to the news agency, this individual, whose initials are "M. A.", was a former Iranian military official who had long resided in the Turkish port city of Zonguldak.
According to the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, intelligence officers of the Islamic Republic tried to set up a network in Van with a budget of $30,000 to return "M. A." to Iran.
According to Anatoly, members of this network, on the orders of Iranian intelligence officers, had offered M. Y., M. A.'s wife, $10,000 to help kidnap M. A., and had threatened her that if she rejected the offer, her family members in Iran would be harmed.
On October 2nd, Turkish Intelligence Agency agents and Van Provincial Police took action and arrested the car of Iranian citizen S. S. and Turkish citizen M. A. who were attempting to kidnap M. A.
Other members of this team include the owner of a defense industry trading company, several officers, and a retired colonel named Kamil Tashi.
As reported by Turkish media, the Islamic Republic had been monitoring "M. A" for a long time and had sent an agent named "Ali Ghahraman Hajiabad" to Istanbul to carry out the operation to kidnap him and identify the team members.
According to investigations by Turkish security forces, this Islamic Republic agent returned to Iran after organizing the operation.
The report identified an Iranian named Morteza Sultan Sanjali, who worked at the Bay Sağlam Defense Industries Company in the Tuzla district of Istanbul, as one of the most important links in this operation.
The Islamic Republic has previously kidnapped a number of its opponents from neighboring countries such as Iraq and Türkiye or killed them in those countries.
Among them, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani was shot and killed in November 2019 in the Şişli neighborhood of Istanbul.
Source: Radio Farda
