An Istanbul Magistrates’ Court ordered the detention of two people accused of spying for Israel on Monday, pending investigation, following their arrest on Friday in an operation carried out by intelligence and security forces in Istanbul.
The court’s decision comes after the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office received testimonies from Serkan Çiçek, accused of spying for Mossad, and lawyer Tuğrul Handeb, accused of selling information to investigators working for Israeli intelligence.
The two suspects were referred to the Magistrates’ Court with a request for their detention on charges of “collecting secret state information for political or military espionage.” The Magistrates’ Court ordered the detention of the two suspects on the charges against them.
On October 3, Turkish security sources confirmed that the Turkish intelligence service had arrested the accused lawyer Tuğrul Handeb in Istanbul after he sold information to investigators spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
Deeb was arrested in Istanbul during a joint operation conducted by Turkish intelligence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Istanbul Security Directorate’s Counterterrorism Branch, during which the accused, Serkan Cicek, was arrested.
Sources reported that Deeb was one of the people hired by Serkan Cicek, a Mossad agent. It was also revealed that Deeb cooperated not only with Cicek but also with several investigators who spied for the Mossad.
This included Musa Koç, who was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of working for Israel.
Investigations revealed that Deeb assisted investigators in obtaining personal data from public records in exchange for financial benefits, and that he established an illegal information system through which he sold the information he collected to investigators.
It emerged that the investigators who cooperated with Deeb were presenting this information to the Israeli Mossad and using it for espionage activities.
Last Friday, Turkish intelligence carried out a joint operation, codenamed “Metron,” with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Counter-Terrorism Branch of the Istanbul Security Directorate.
This operation resulted in the arrest of Serkan Cicek, who was found to be working for the Israeli Mossad, according to security sources.
According to information gathered by the Turkish intelligence service, Cicek was connected to Faisal Rashid, a member of the Israeli cyber operations center.
The information revealed that Cicek agreed to carry out espionage activities for Rashid targeting a Palestinian activist opposed to Israeli policies in the Middle East, in exchange for money.
