37 people sentenced to prison in Istanbul for spying for the Israeli Mossad

The Istanbul High Criminal Court sentenced Ahmet Koray Ozgurun and Alperen Erkut to eight years and four months in prison each after finding them guilty of “obtaining prohibited information for the purpose of espionage.”

In addition, 35 other defendants were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison each for similar crimes.

When the verdict was announced, the majority of those convicted were either present or represented by their lawyers. Before the verdict was announced, the defense lawyers argued that there was no concrete evidence against their clients and pleaded for acquittal.

However, the court acquitted 19 people of the charge of “obtaining prohibited information for the purpose of espionage” because there was insufficient evidence to support their crime.

Previously, the Istanbul Attorney General’s Office had stated in the indictment that the Israeli secret service used mobile apps for espionage operations.

According to the document, Israeli intelligence has formed an online team to remotely raise funds, transfer money via live courier and carry out tactical missions for specific operations.

The indictment states that the first contact was made via apps such as Telegram, WhatsApp, social media accounts, LinkedIn and email.

Communication was strictly limited to these apps, no video or voice calls were allowed. It was also stated that payments for these tasks were made through international money transfer services, cryptocurrencies, remittance offices and live courier services.

Detectives were used for more complex tasks, while convicts, who were unlikely to arouse suspicion, were assigned tactical roles.

Their tasks included managing WhatsApp groups, designing websites and online newspapers, conducting research, transferring money, documenting photos and videos, and even carrying out physical assaults, thefts, and surveillance operations.

The tasks of the criminal investigators, on the other hand, consisted of collecting biographical information, conducting investigations, monitoring targets and accessing confidential information from government databases.

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