Pakistani terrorist Amir Khan, who was sent to assassinate Israeli businessman Itzik Moshe in Georgia earlier this month, was originally supposed to assassinate the businessman by slitting his throat, Walla News reported on Saturday afternoon.
During the investigation into the 32-year-old would-be assassin, it was revealed that the original mission plan was changed after he refused to comply and demanded to be provided a firearm instead.
According to Khan, a 45-year-old man - known only as Sufian - with connections to international terrorist organizations and Iranian authorities entered Georgia ahead of him without any problems, and it is he who hired Khan to carry out the murder.
"I had two chances to do it...but I told him that I could not kill a person with a knife, and he got me a gun," the terrorist said in his testimony.
"I had two chances to do it...but I told him that I could not kill a person with a knife, and he got me a gun,"
Amir Khan
In the testimony, which was published across Georgian media, he described in great detail how he was recruited into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and how he was sent to the capital, Tbilisi, to carry out the mission.
Among the suspects involved in the foiled assassination attempt is also a woman who is suspected of assisting in gathering intelligence information ahead of the assassination attempt. Additionally, a Pakistani citizen and two Iranian translators who are suspected of working as accomplices were also arrested during the initial stages of the investigation.
Now, in Georgia, the concern is rising that representatives of the IRGC, who are close to al-Qaeda, are moving freely into the country and are waiting to be activated in designated apartments without interference. Such an apartment was also used in the assassination attempt against Moshe.
Khan lived in such an apartment for a month with an Iranian agent, and only after weeks had passed did they reveal to him the details of the mission he had to carry out in Tbilisi.
The hired killer said in his confession that he flew from Dubai on September 14 to assassinate an Israeli, and simply crossed the border control at Tbilisi International Airport.
Khan tailed Moshe on a daily basis
According to Khan's admission, he began following Moshe on a daily basis. The team Khan worked with examined every step of the Israeli businessman and the possibilities for a suitable place and time for the murder, and all the details were discussed and agreed upon in advance.
Over the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the terrorist knew about the security arrangements around the head of the "Beit Israel" advocacy organization, Itzik Moshe - in detail. It also emerged from publications regarding the investigation that in exchange for the murder, the authorities in Iran would release friends of the Khan who are currently imprisoned in Iran.
Khan said that the weapon was transferred to him through contacts and that according to the instructions he received, he was supposed to complete the task by November 7.
The investigators have not yet summoned Moshe himself for questioning. Moshe said that he learned about the plot to assassinate him from Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, who was the first to call him, and from the publications in Georgian and Israeli media that appeared at the same time.
He is convinced that this was an attack designed to thwart an antisemitism conference he organized two weeks ago in Jerusalem. "The fact is that he set the date November 7 to complete the task by, which was the day the conference opened," Moshe told Walla.
The conference was held with the participation of 300 people from different countries and ended before it was known about the assassination attempt.