An elderly Israeli man smirked in court Thursday as he was accused of plotting with Iran to assassinate Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his top government leaders.
The alleged would-be hitman, identified by Israeli media as 73-year-old Moti Maman, was nabbed after attending at least two meetings in Iran earlier this year to discuss the assassination plot, according to a joint statement by Shin Bet and the Israeli police.
Maman, a businessman with ties to Turkey, was allegedly smuggled into Iran in the back of a truck in April after agreeing to meet a wealthy businessman living there for business purposes, intelligence officials said.
“The Israeli citizen entered Iran … smuggled through the border hidden inside a truck cabin,” the Shin Bet statement said.
“He met with additional Iranian intelligence agents and was asked by them to carry out activities for Iran on Israeli soil, including promoting assassination attacks.”
The Iranians proposed he carry out tasks for Iran including transferring money or a gun, photographing crowded places or threatening other Israeli civilians operating on behalf of Iran who did not carry out the requested missions, intelligence officials said.
Maman then allegedly went back to Israel but returned to Iran for a second time — also smuggled in a truck — last month.
On the second visit, Iranian officials asked him to carry out the assassination plots, according to the Israeli authorities.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, were also allegedly discussed as targets.
Maman allegedly demanded an advancement payment of $1 million before carrying out the plot, the security officials said.
Iranian officials, however, shot down his request, saying they would remain in touch and paid him $5,500 for joining the meetings.
Maman’s lawyer, Eyal Besserglick, described his client’s involvement in the alleged plot as an “error of judgment” and said he is now cooperating with Israel’s intelligence agencies.
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“It can already be said that this is a person who has greatly assisted the security services of the State of Israel, whose children serve in the security forces,” Besserglick said.
Israel has said Iran was plotting the would-be assassinations as revenge for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an airstrike in Tehran in July.
News of the arrest and alleged assassination plot came a day after the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group was hit for a second day by a sophisticated attack that saw pagers and communications equipment start detonating throughout Lebanon.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed the attack on “Israeli aggression” and vowed revenge.
With Post wires
