Turkish court hands 250 years of prison time to alleged Israeli spies

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

A Turkish court has handed prison time totalling nearly 250 years to 37 people convicted of spying for Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence service, according to a court document seen by The National.

The sentences come as Turkey says it is clamping down on Mossad agents in the country amid a major low in its relations with Israel, sparked by opposing views over the war in Gaza.

Ahmet Koray Ozgurun and Alperen Erkut were this week each sentenced to eight years and one month for “obtaining prohibited information for the purpose of espionage”, according to a list of charges from the Istanbul 28th High Criminal Court. They have the right to appeal, and time spent in pretrial detention will be deducted from their sentence.

Thirty-five others were each handed prison sentences of six years and eight months for the same charge, the document said.

It did not give details of the information they had procured, or where and when. But it said that among other factors, the sentences had been based on “the importance and value of the subject of the crime” and “the severity of the defendants' fault based on intent”.

The 35 defendants who were not in pretrial detention have been given travel bans and also have the right to appeal. Their lawyer said there was no concrete evidence against his clients, Turkish news channel Haberturk reported. Nineteen more defendants were acquitted and have the right to file compensation lawsuits, the indictment from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office read.

The sentences added up mean those convicted will collectively spend nearly 250 years behind bars – a sign of how seriously Turkey is taking espionage on its soil.

Last month, Turkey claimed to have arrested Mossad’s chief financier in the country. Liridon Rexhepi, a Kosovan national, entered Turkey on August 25 and was arrested five days later in Istanbul by a counter-terrorism unit, following work by the Turkish intelligence service MIT.

At the time, a Turkish security source confirmed to The National that Mr Rexhepi had been charged with “espionage against the state”, after authorities concluded that he transferred money to Mossad field agents in Turkey who were operating drones, conducting “psychological operations” against Palestinian politicians and compiling information about Syria for Israel. He admitted to making money transfers in a statement to police, one of the sources added.

Turkey has conducted previous operations to arrest alleged operatives from Mossad and other countries' intelligence services. In January, Turkish police and intelligence forces raided 57 sites across eight provinces, apprehending 33 people suspected of working for Mossad. It is not clear if the people sentenced this week were those arrested in January's raids.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have soured dramatically since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and led to the war in Gaza. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders have voiced support for Hamas and criticised Israel's conduct in its military operations, which have killed more than 41,000 people in the Palestinian enclave since the war began.

Turkey banned trade with Israel in May over the war and Mr Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have traded barbs on social media.

On Friday, Mr Erdogan responded to the explosions of Hezbollah communications devices in Lebanon that killed 37 people this week and were blamed on Israel. “We carry out almost all of our operations with our own weapons and national technology,” Mr Erdogan told a meeting of Turkish government security personnel in Istanbul. “We saw how important this is with the cyber terror attack on Lebanon.”