Iranian Eisa S., suspected of preparing attacks in Iran, is said to have been hacked by the same country. The reports in which plans for attacks were discussed would not have been written by him, his lawyer says on Tuesday in the court of Rotterdam.
The man was arrested in February this year after a tip from the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) that S. was prepared to support an attack in Iran.
Between January 2017 and February 2020, chat service Telegram discussed targets in Iran and weapons to be purchased. Messages S. says not to have sent.
The public prosecutor said during the introductory session to seriously investigate whether S. has indeed been hacked, but has not yet found any evidence for this, rather the opposite.
“The question is also whether it makes sense,” said the officer. “I don’t follow the reasoning that Iran is hacking someone and then waiting for it to be discovered and arrested.”
Man is a member of the resistance movement
The 40-year-old Iranian is a member of the Iranian resistance movement Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), which also has its seat in Denmark, in addition to the Netherlands. The movement was founded with the aim of achieving the liberation of the Ahwaz (Khuzastan) region of Iran.
The ASMLA also has an armed branch after a splinter group split from the movement in 2015 but continued under the same name.
Whether S. belonged to this branch is not clear. In any case, according to the Public Prosecution Service, S. had a facilitating and organizing role in planning attacks. The prosecution suspects him of membership of a terrorist organization.
Suspect himself wore alarm button
It is striking that the man himself had been carrying an alarm button for months because he was at risk. Iranian spies have been watching S. for a long time because he runs a TV station in Rijswijk where Iran is critically spoken about.
The fact that Iran is not afraid of violence against the movement is evident from the murder of Ahmad Mola Nissi, leader of the ASMLA, in The Hague in 2017. A murder committed by Iran according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to his lawyer, the man’s brother is being held in Iran and would not be released until S. returns to that country.
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