Turkish intelligence has detained two people on suspicion of spying for Israel’s Mossad and providing information that helped the spy agency target its enemies, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported Friday.
Security sources said Mehmet Budak Derya and Veysel Kerimoğlu had been taken into custody in İstanbul, saying they had long been on the radar of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
Derya, a mining engineer, allegedly first caught the attention of Mossad in 2005 when he opened a marble quarry near the southern coastal city of Mersin and began trading overseas, first contacting him via a person named Ali Ahmed Yassin in 2012, the sources said.
Investigators said Yassin, who ran an Israeli shell company, invited Derya for a business meeting in Europe in 2013, which is where he allegedly first met Mossad agents, they said.
During the meeting, they discussed the marble trade and suggested he hire a Turkish citizen of Palestinian origin named Veysel Kerimoğlu, they said.
The men became friends and allegedly began sharing information with Mossad, who paid Kerimoğlu’s salary, they said.
Through Kerimoğlu, Derya is alleged to have increased his Middle Eastern activities, building social and commercial ties with Palestinians opposed to Israel’s policies and allegedly sharing information about them with Mossad.
The men are also alleged to have sent technical information and photos of premises they were looking to acquire, notably in Gaza.
In early 2016 Kerimoğlu is alleged to have suggested that Derya begin supplying drone parts, with the businessman making contact with Mohamed Zouari, who was killed in Tunisia later that year, allegedly by Mossad, investigators said.
Zouari — an engineer who specialized in drone development for the Palestinian Hamas movement — was gunned down in his car in the eastern city of Sfax in December 2016.
Late last year, a Tunisian a court convicted 18 people in absentia for his murder.
Derya is alleged to have used an encrypted communication system to send technical data to his handlers and underwent two lie detector tests in 2016 and 2024.
He was detained while trying to set up a company that would have overseen three Asian shell companies whose aim was allegedly to hide the origins of various products that would have been supplied to buyers on Mossad’s radar.
The plan was allegedly discussed in detail at their last meeting in January.
Both suspects are currently being questioned by police, they said.
© Agence France-Presse