Two Israeli women and a man were acquitted of passing information and involvement with an alleged Iranian spy who contacted them through Facebook and Whatsapp, Judge Ilan Sela ruled at the Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday morning.
The accused were part of a group of five Israelis of Iranian extraction that had been arrested by the Shin Bet and Israel Police in January 2022 after allegedly being recruited by an Iranian agent known as Rambud Namdar to conduct intelligence gathering missions within Israel.
Sela described the women as having been contacted by a man identifying as an Iranian Jew, and manipulated in a relationship to provide information.
“We’re talking about women that were looking for warmth and love, an attentive ear and occasional financial assistance, and Rambud, who is alleged to be a foreign agent, smartly took advantage of this, forged a long relationship, and with great sophistication and manipulation, managed to use them to his needs,” read the judgement summary.
Intention to spy based on ideology
The judge said that punishments for espionage should have been reserved for those that had intended to spy out of ideological motives, not for those who had been tricked and had no intention of harming the state. Sela said that the defendants were patriots, and had not sought to contact a foreign agent.
Facebook account of Iranian agent ”Rambud Namdar.” (credit: SHIN BET)Two other women had previously been acquitted of their espionage charges.
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