Iran: Spies didn't know about each other
Islamic Republic's intelligence minister says team that assassinated nuclear scientist in January 2010 was not involved in similar incident in November. Two killings were only operations carried out by Mossad on Iranian soil in 2010, he adds
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi on Wednesday offered new details on the assassination of two nuclear scientists in his country, stressing that two separate teams were involved in the two incidents.
According to Moslehi, the team of assassins arrested on suspicion of being involved in the January 2010 incident was not involved in the second killing, which took place about two months ago. He added that those were the only two assassinations committed by the Israeli Mossad in Iran in the past year.
The Iranian government announced Monday that it had arrested more than 10 people in connection with the assassination of senior physicist Prof. Masoud Ali Mohammadi with a booby-trapped motorcycle activated outside his house on January 12, 2010.
The main suspect in the assassination, Majid Jamali Fash, confessed to the allegations in a television interview and spoke about his recruitment to the Israeli secret service.
The Iranian intelligence minister was asked at the end of Wednesday's cabinet meeting in Tehran whether the suspects had also been involved in the assassination of another nuclear scientist later in the year.
"They were compartmentalized and didn't know about each other," Moslehi responded. Physicist Majid Shahriari was killed on November 29 after motorcyclists attached explosive devices to a car he was travelling in. Another scientist, Dr. Fereidoun Abbasi, was injured the same day in a similar assassination attempt.
Moslehi provided additional details on the Iranian investigators' suspicions. Asked by reporters whether the Mossad had carried out any additional operations in Iran in a direct manner, he replied, "Only in these assassinations."
Suspects' certificates (Photo: Reuters)
According to the minister, the spies arrested in Mohammadi's assassination are all of Iranian descent. Jamali Fash is suspected of committing the murder itself, while the other detainees are suspected of aiding him.
"The man who rented him an apartment, the man who sold him the motorcycle, and the man who planted the bomb – none of them knew about each other," Moslehi said.
On Tuesday, the Islamic Republic's Intelligence Ministry publicly exhibited computers, weapons and secret equipment allegedly used to carry out the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist last year.
The Iranian government claimed that the computers used by the assassins were encrypted so they could contact their operators while staying outside of the country.
On Monday, Iranian TV broadcast an interview with Jamali Fash, who claimed he had traveled to Tel Aviv and met a number of senior IDF officers. "I received sabotage training," he said, but did not reveal the date of his visit to Israel.
"I was trained how to follow and avoid being followed, as well as how to attach a bomb underneath a vehicle," he said during the televised "confession".
- Follow Ynetnews on Facebook
