Group of men set to be charged for making explosives for Iranian agent, police say

A group of men suspected of manufacturing explosives at the behest of an Iranian agent will be indicted in the coming days, police say, after a prosecutor’s declaration was filed against the main suspect.

Haifa resident Ami Gaydarov, 22, had been in online contact with an Iranian intelligence agent since August, until police arrested him last month.

The young man “agreed to manufacture explosive material which was intended to harm a senior figure,” police say. He allegedly rented an apartment in the city as a makeshift laboratory to create and test the material.

Police say he was assisted by others, among them Haifa residents Sergey Leibman and Edward Shovtiuk, who are also expected to face charges in the coming days. According to Ynet, two others who have not yet been named were involved in the offenses.

Gaydarov was also instructed to take photos of the Haifa Port and missile impact sites in northern Israel during the war with Iran, which is currently on pause after a ceasefire was declared earlier this week.

He received NIS 70,000 ($23,000) in exchange for the tasks he carried out, most of it in the form of cryptocurrency, police say.

The alleged plot marks a relatively rare instance in which an Iranian agent managed to convince his Israeli recruit to go a step beyond spying or vandalism and begin plotting violence against public figures.

The case was investigated jointly by the Shin Bet security service and the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit, and was previously subject to a gag order, parts of which were gradually lifted.