Istanbul: Turkish security authorities announced today the arrest of two suspects working for the Israeli Mossad in a raid in Istanbul. The Turkish security authorities stated in a media release that a criminal court in Istanbul ordered the detention of the two suspects pending investigation, following their arrest in an operation carried out by intelligence and security forces in Istanbul.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, the court’s decision comes after the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office took the testimonies of Serkan Cicek, accused of spying for the Mossad, and lawyer Tugrul Han Dep, accused of selling information to investigators working for Israeli intelligence. The two suspects were referred to the criminal court with a request to detain them on charges of “collecting secret state information for political or military espionage purposes.”
Last Friday, the Turkish intelligence Agency arrested the accused, lawyer Tugrul Han Deb, in Istanbul after gathering information confirming that he had sold information to investigators spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Deb was arrested in Istanbul during a joint operation carried out by Turkish intelligence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Istanbul Security Directorate’s Counterterrorism Branch. Another suspect, Serkan Cicek, was also arrested.
Sources reported that Deb was one of the people hired by Serkan Cicek, a Mossad agent. It was also revealed that Deb not only cooperated with Cicek, but also worked with several investigators spying for Mossad, including Musa Ko§, who was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of working for Israel. Investigations revealed that Deb assisted investigators in obtaining personal data from public records in exchange for financial benefits, and that he had established an illegal information system through which he sold the information he collected to investigators.
It turned out that the investigators who cooperated with Deb were presenting this information to the Israeli Mossad and using it for espionage activities. According to information gathered by the Turkish intelligence service, it was revealed that Cicek had connections with Faisal Rashid, a member of the Israeli cyber operations center. The information revealed that Cicek agreed to carry out espionage activities on behalf of Rashid targeting a Palestinian activist opposed to Israeli policies in the Middle East, in exchange for money.