Cyprus police have arrested three employees of a high-tech surveillance equipment company owned by an Israeli former intelligence officer amid a probe of the firm’s business activities.
Police said the two men and one woman, ages 30, 35 and 41, were under investigation for suspected breaches of private communication and personal data laws.
An alleged ‘spy van’ owned by an Israeli ex-intelligence officer, as featured in a video by Forbes on September 4, 2019 (screenshot: YouTube)
They face 13 possible charges, including conspiracy to commit a criminal act and obtaining registration under false pretenses, Cyprus police say.
All three are due to appear in court on Friday for a custody hearing.
Police launched a probe of the company, Cyprus-registered WiSpear, following reports that alleged a van supposedly crammed with sophisticated surveillance technology was used to spy on people on the east Mediterranean island nation.
WiSpear has denied any wrongdoing, saying it neither sold nor rented “intelligence systems” to Cypriot authorities and doesn’t provide “intelligence services” for clients.
WiSpear was incorporated in 2013 and began operating four years later. It is run by Tal Dillian, an Israeli who an earlier Forbes video showed boasting about the vehicle’s surveillance capabilities.
— AP
Discover Israel's most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen 'The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg' June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 19, 2019
