A resident of Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, was indicted on Monday for allegedly being in contact with an Iranian foreign agent who offered him payment for performing various tasks.
Eden Dabas, 30, is being charged with contacting a foreign agent and possession of various types of drugs for personal use, including MDMA (Ecstasy) and cocaine.
According to prosecutors, over the past four months Dabas was in contact with the agent via Telegram and was paid $12,000 in cryptocurrency for performing the tasks, which included printing and hanging posters encouraging a military coup and helping to promote a Telegram group called The People’s Army aimed at recruiting more Israeli citizens.
Prosecutors said that Dabas sent the agent videos as proof of his activities to receive the payments.
In addition, the agent ordered him to buy a separate phone and SIM card and wigs, gloves and a hat and eventually requested he delete all of their communications.
Prosecutors are requesting his detention be extended until the end of the proceedings.
Earlier this month, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) published a list of fake online profiles Iran set up to lure Israelis into conducting espionage.
In a statement made previously, the agency said, “The use of the method of contacting Israeli citizens through social media networks, under the false pretense of the identity of the person making the request, is a well-known method of operation of the Iranian intelligence agencies.”
Three Israeli citizens were arrested in July on suspicion of harming the country’s national security on behalf of the Iranian regime.
