Turkish intelligence detains Mossad agent in Istanbul

Turkish authorities arrested early on Friday a man named Serkan Cicek who was working for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

Security sources told Anadolu that Turkish intelligence carried out a joint operation called “Mitron” with the public prosecutor’s office and the counter-terrorism branch of the Istanbul Police Department.

The operation in Istanbul resulted in Cicek’s arrest after it was established that he worked for Mossad.
According to information gathered by Turkish intelligence, Cicek was linked to a person who identified himself as “Faisal Rashid,” one of the operatives of the Israeli online operations centre.

The information also showed that Cicek agreed to carry out espionage activities for Rashid targeting a Palestinian activist who opposes Israeli policies in the Middle East.

In April, a Turkish court handed down heavy prison sentences, totaling nearly 100 years, to a spy cell affiliated with Mossad that operated in Turkey and Europe, involving an entire family and several others.

Turkish intelligence dismantled the Mossad cell last year and exposed all its operational details, which directly involved a Turkish businessman named Ahmet Ersin Tomlugali, along with his wife and his stepdaughter.

The number of people convicted in the case was six, and they were charged with obtaining secret state information for the purpose of political or military espionage.

The court charged them with collaborating with the occupation’s intelligence agency “Mossad,” leaking secret information to foreign parties, and engaging in espionage activities.

Turkish daily Sabah reported that the main defendant, Ahmet Ersin, was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison, but the sentence was reduced to 18 years due to a lack of prior convictions.
The court also sentenced his wife, Benan Tomlugali, to 16 years and 8 months, and his stepdaughter, Dila Simsek, to 15 years and 7 months, because of their active participation in espionage, direct contact with Mossad operatives, and the collection of secret information.

Prison terms exceeding 15 years were also handed down to three others who participated in the espionage activities, collecting secret information for years in exchange for large sums of money.

Investigations revealed that Ersin and his family received hundreds of thousands of euros from Mossad officers based in Europe in exchange for information about people — mostly Palestinians and Lebanese — by closely monitoring and photographing them, preparing detailed biographies, and compiling reports on their movements and places of residence.

According to the case file, the main defendant had established an insurance company as a cover for all the espionage activities, through which he obtained the information requested by Mossad officers and supplied it to them periodically.