Alleged spy ring that took pictures for Iran charged with aiding enemy in wartime
Seven Israelis accused of photographing hundreds of sites, including IDF bases, ports, Iron Domes, a soccer stadium and a southern town, over several years
Seven residents of northern Israel were indicted on charges of aiding an enemy during wartime Friday, over allegations the group spied on behalf of Iran for years in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The charge sheet, filed at Haifa District Court, alleges that Azis Nisanov, 43, headed an organized spy ring that knowingly provided Iran with photos and other information on sensitive facilities, including civilian sites, military bases and air defense batteries, and also snooped on a University of Haifa researcher, in what prosecutors have called one of the most damning espionage cases in the country’s history.
The alleged affair, which was revealed by Israeli authorities last week following the arrest of the seven suspects in September, is one of several suspected Iranian plots involving Israeli citizens that police say they have uncovered in recent months, shining a light on Tehran’s apparent efforts to harm Israel amid an expanding Middle East war.
All seven were accused of aiding an enemy during wartime, one of the few charges in Israel that carries a potential death penalty or life in prison, as well as passing information to an enemy. Two suspects were also charged with obstruction of justice.
“This is one of the most severe cases of security offenses that have been uncovered in the State of Israel, and which was carried out by Israeli citizens who knew well that they were acting against the country’s security and for Iran, at a time when Israel was engaged in a tough war on several fronts,” a Justice Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The suspects, all residents of Haifa and the north who emigrated from Azerbaijan, include a soldier who deserted the military, as well as two minors aged 16-17. They performed some 600 missions over two years, authorities said.
According to the 20-page indictment, Nisanov was first contacted by an Iranian intelligence agent named in the charge sheet as Alkhasan Agayev in the second half of 2022 through a mutual acquaintance and agreed to take pictures of sensitive sites in exchange for money, due to financial hardships he was going through.
While the group was mainly handled by Agayev, they were also in contact with a second agent, named only as “Orkhayan,” prosecutors allege.
“The two agents were in constant contact with the suspects and recruited them to carry out various tasks with the goal of collecting intelligence for Iran, including photographing and collecting information on civilian infrastructure, military bases, defensive systems and IDF weapons, and also trailing various people,” the Justice Ministry statement said.
Prosecutors say Nisanov initially recruited Vyacheslav Gushchin, a 46-year-old former employee of his, to help take pictures and collect information. In 2023, health issues forced Sadykov to limit his spying, leading Nisanov to bring others into the cell, including Alexander Sadykov, 58, who became his deputy.
Also brought in were his son, Yigal Nisan, 20, who was serving as an enlisted soldier in the air force at the time, Yevgeny Yoffe, 47, who was a friend of Sadykov’s, and the two unnamed minors, according to prosecutors. The indictment noted that Nisan was declared AWOL on December 4, 2023.
According to the charge sheet, the spying activity continued following the October 7 Hamas attack, though in November the group adopted a cover story — pretending to be tour guides — to contend with the heightened security in the aftermath of the massacre and the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Among the locations photographed by the ring were dozens of military sites across the country, including air force bases that were later targeted by Iran during ballistic missile attacks on Israel in April and on October 1.
Following the April 13 attack on the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, one of the unnamed suspects was dispatched to photograph what he could of the damage caused to the base, prosecutors said.
Other sites photographed by the group, such as a military radar station on Mount Meron and north Tel Aviv’s Glilot, where the Mossad spy agency and 8200 signals intelligence unit are based, have been targeted by Iranian proxy groups such as Hezbollah in recent months, prosecutors noted.
In Haifa and Eilat, the group repeatedly sent pictures of both cities’ naval bases and civilian ports. They also photographed the Ashdod civilian port, Iron Dome missile defense batteries around Israel, power plants near Hadera and adjacent to the Elyakim military base in the Lower Galilee, and other vital facilities.
The group also collected information about an unnamed professor at the University of Haifa who researches natural gas deposits, with an emphasis on the Caucuses, according to the indictment.
And they were accused of trying to gather information about foreign sites, including chartering a boat to Cyprus to photograph the port there and the landing path for flights between the island and Israel. They were also tasked with photographing a Jordanian port from Eilat.
“Our assessment is that the activities of this ring caused damage to the security of Israel,” a Shin Bet official said when the arrests were announced on Monday.
In mid-September the group was asked to provide photographs of soccer matches at Beersheba’s Turner Stadium, as well as youth league practices. The group was also tasked with spying on the nearby town of Lahav. Several members were collared by authorities while taking pictures of the community on September 19, with Gushchin and Yaffe arrested days later.
In return for their actions, the suspects were paid $300,000, including compensation for outlays of equipment such as cameras and phones, according to the charge sheet. The money was initially transferred via foreign exchange agents and later was sent as cryptocurrency. No money changers were named in the indictment.
Authorities said they were seeking a court order to keep the seven behind bars until the conclusion of legal proceedings.
After news of the arrests broke earlier this week, Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called for Israel to impose the death penalty on those convicted of treason during times of war.
“The phenomenon of traitors to the country harming Israel’s security for the sake of money while we are fighting for our future in an existential war demands the harshest measures, including a law allowing for the death penalty for aiding the enemy in wartime,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s penal code already includes capital punishment, but only for exceedingly rare cases, treason being one of them.
The Shin Bet in recent months has announced a series of alleged Iranian plots, including some in which Tehran had tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions.
On Tuesday, authorities announced they had nabbed a separate seven-man Iranian spy ring, this one in East Jerusalem, that had allegedly pursued the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist as well as the mayor of a large city in central Israel.
In September, a man from the southern city of Ashkelon was arrested on allegations that he was smuggled into Iran twice and received payment to carry out missions on behalf of Tehran, and was recruited to assassinate either Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet.
Then, on October 14, a man and his 18-year-old partner, both from Ramat Gan, were arrested on charges they carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an Iranian agent.
On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel, who allegedly acquired a weapon in order to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s behalf.
Those cases came after authorities in January uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
