IRAN: Convicted of spying for Israel, man confesses

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The Iranian telecom executive sentenced to death last week after being convicted on charges of spying for Israel appeared on Iranian television Monday to detail his actions.

Ali Ashtari (right) was the head of a company that sold communications gear to the Iranian government. He was arrested on espionage charges a year and a half ago. He said on state-controlled television that he used cutting-edge equipment to communicate with his Mossad handler, according to a report published on the website of Ynet, the Israeli news website.

‘I was given a laptop computer so I could communicate with him and write to him by encoded and ciphered email, and he gave me two encrypted communication devices that I was to give to my clients, to test them out,’ Ashtari said, according to the Ynet report.

He said he was directed to plant surveillance devices inside the gear he sold his customers, which included the highest echelons of Iran’s military.

He said his handlers desperately sought information about Iran’s missiles and wanted him to lure the officials in charge of buying Iranian missiles out of the country, presumably so they could be kidnapped, he said.

‘They asked me me to bring them abroad under any possible pretext: tourism, special seminars or exhibitions,’ said Ashtari.

One time, he said, a senior Iranian military official asked him to fix his cellphone, which his handlers apparently wanted to clone for easy eavesdropping.

‘I informed my handlers about the case and they showed deep interest in the case and asked me to give the official a new bugged mobile set,’ he said. ‘Meantime, they asked me for the official’s mobile set because they wanted to extract the numbers, information and any data existing in the phone. In this way, the senior official who gave me the appliance becomes an intelligence source without his knowledge.’

Israel has denied any knowledge of Ashtari.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut