Selçuk Küçükkaya, a non-public investigator who was captured final yr in an operation in opposition to “spies” working for Israel’s Mossad, collaborated with authorities and detailed his work for the intelligence company. Küçükkaya defined how he met Mossad officers on 11 events and in 10 completely different cities in Europe and ready intelligence studies for Mossad in alternate for money.
Küçükkaya was amongst a bunch of Turkish residents who have been apprehended final Might in Istanbul in an operation by the Nationwide Intelligence Group (MIT). He and others, 17 suspects in whole, together with 4 who have been remanded in custody, are accused of political and army espionage, a cost carrying a jail time period of as much as 15 years.
The suspect mentioned he was launched to Mossad brokers by way of Serkan Özdemirci, a former Turkish army officer who’s presently at giant after he was charged earlier with hyperlinks to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was behind a 2016 coup try in Türkiye.
“Serkan contacted me in August 2018 and instructed me a international insurance coverage firm was searching for a non-public investigator. I had a number of telephone calls with him and he launched me to somebody known as ‘Jorge.’ I talked to Jorge by way of Skype and supplied my companies. He first despatched me the names of some eating places and requested me to research their business actions. I used to be requested to take their photographs, too. I compiled a report in regards to the companies and requested for 1,000 euros ($1.062,84) in return. He mentioned he preferred my report and wished to satisfy me in individual,” Küçükkaya instructed investigators.
After “Jorge,” Küçükkaya met “Alfonso” and the duo handed him one other job. He was now working surveillance work on individuals of Iranian and Lebanese origin. Küçükkaya mentioned he met Jorge in Rome in 2018 and was paid for his earlier work. His subsequent job was accumulating details about an electrical energy firm. “Most of my work concerned surveillance of international corporations. For Turkish corporations they wished to research, they requested me to search out their connections overseas. They wished to search out out who they labored with and who the house owners of corporations have been,” Küçükkaya instructed authorities.
His subsequent assembly along with his Mossad handlers was in Copenhagen, and there he underwent a polygraph check, in line with his statements. “They’d a tool and plugged its cables into my physique and carried out an interview. They requested me my career, whether or not I labored for the federal government,” he recounted.
In 2019, he met “Alfonso” in Belgium and Mossad brokers put in a program on his pc for studying encrypted emails they despatched. His subsequent goal was a foreign money alternate workplace in Istanbul’s Laleli district. Different jobs concerned surveillance of the advertising supervisor of a Turkish firm.
The Turkish personal investigator additionally shared the contents of his electronic mail correspondence with authorities. Emails despatched in July 2020 ask him to comply with Palestinian nationwide M. Almahmoud. Küçükkaya’s handlers gave him Almahmoud’s flight particulars from Beirut to Istanbul. They requested him to watch how a lot baggage he had and whether or not the person was accompanied by any safety guards. Additionally they requested him to examine whether or not the guards have been armed, whether or not he took a taxicab from the airport or was given a experience by a non-public automobile, and examine his journey route in Istanbul. Handlers additionally instructed he use completely different automobiles, “no less than three automobiles and one motorcycle,” to keep away from detection and “higher pursuit” of the goal. The identical electronic mail justifies the surveillance as “for use to search out weak spots on the goal’s route to hold out an assault.”
MIT additionally busted a Mossad cell in Türkiye in December 2022, as some seven individuals discovered spying on Palestinians within the nation have been arrested. The company had knowledgeable that the suspects have been serving to Mossad launch on-line defamation campaigns and threats in opposition to Palestinians. MIT, in cooperation with Turkish police, has uncovered a string of espionage networks lately, together with one working for Russia, and thwarted a plot by Iran to assassinate Israeli residents in Türkiye. Operations have additionally led to the invention of a narrative by Iranian intelligence operatives to kidnap Iranian dissidents who took shelter in Türkiye.