An indictment was filed against Moti Maman, a 73-year-old man from Ashkelon, on suspicion of committing security offenses involving contact with Iranian regime intelligence agents, Maariv reported on Thursday morning.
Maman is also suspected of involvement in the planned assassinations of the prime minister, defense minister, and Shin Bet chief.
One of Maman's neighbors in Ashkelon told Maariv, "It was clear he didn't like the country, that he wasn't happy here. Whenever I saw him, he would complain. Two weeks ago, security forces arrived at the building with weapons, looking for him. He lives here with his partner. The moment we saw that the spy was from Ashkelon, we immediately knew it was him. I called a friend and told her it must be him - and I was right. It doesn't surprise me at all."
"We have just received the indictment along with a request for detention until the end of proceedings.” Attorney Eyal Besserglick, representing the accused, stated. “We haven't yet seen the investigation materials, so at this stage, it's difficult to delve into the details of the case. We can already say that this is a person who has greatly assisted Israel's security services, whose children serve in the security forces, and who made an error in judgment in the context of his business. It's not for nothing that the indictment wasn't filed for other offenses. My client cooperated and continues to fully cooperate with the authorities."
Besserglick went on to say, “The suspect has a wife in poor mental condition, two children in the army - one serving now in Gaza and the other in the north, and another young child."
The investigation
As part of the investigation conducted by the Shin Bet and the International Crime Investigations Unit, it emerged that Maman, a businessman, lived in Turkey for an extended period and maintained business and social connections with individuals of Turkish and Iranian origin. As part of these connections, in April of this year, Maman agreed to meet with a wealthy businessman living in Iran named Edi to promote business activities through Turkish intermediaries Andrei Faruk Aslan and Junaid Aslan.
To advance the business activity, he traveled to Samandag, Turkey, where he met with two representatives sent on behalf of Edi. He had a phone conversation with Edi, as the man couldn't leave Iran.
Furthermore, the investigation revealed that in May 2024, he went to Turkey, where he met with Andrei, Junaid, and Edi's two representatives. When it became clear that Edi again couldn't leave Iran for Turkey, Maman was smuggled by car through a land border crossing on the Turkish border, near the city of Van in eastern Turkey, into Iran, where he met with Edi and another person named Haji, who was introduced as an operative of Iranian security mechanisms.
The mission
According to Maariv, Edi tasked the Israeli with performing various security missions within Israel for the Iranian regime, including transferring money or a gun at predetermined points, photographing various crowded places in the country and sending them to Iranian entities, and threatening other Israeli citizens operating in the country who weren’t performing tasks they were asked to do by the regime.