An Israeli woman who was indicted earlier this year of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards tried to end her life and is in critical condition, Kan 11 News reported Thursday night.
In January, the Shin Bet announced that it had uncovered and thwarted an Iranian attempt to recruit Israeli women to spy for the Islamic Republic. Charges were filed against four women and a man of Persian origin who had allegedly been recruited by an Iranian intelligence agent to carry out spying missions inside Israel.
The state prosecution was in the process of reaching a plea agreement with the accused, and the Shin Bet said that close to 20 other Israelis had been in contact with the same agent, but no indictments were filed against them.
The women were recruited by a man who told them he was an Iranian Jew named Rambod Namdar. They maintained contact with him on Facebook and WhatsApp. According to the Shin Bet, some of the women continued their relationship with him and carried out the tasks he assigned them in exchange for money, even though they suspected that he was an Iranian intelligence agent.
The woman’s attorney, Ben-Zion Tzitrin, said following the suicide attempt: “This is a terrible tragedy, she is a normative woman who fell into a Kafkaesque tale while the system is not ready to forgive her. Other people who were in contact with the same agent were let go while demanding in the plea bargain negotiations that my client serve a heavy prison sentence. This was her anguished screaming and I hope that someone will finally hear her.”
