Filenews 24 December 2023 - by Fanis Makrides
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed concern about the role of the occupied territories in planned terrorist attacks against Israelis in Cyprus on December 10, he had specific facts in mind. Data that were put before the Cypriot authorities and revealed today by "F".
The man who allegedly played a role in the recently foiled criminal act against an Israeli businessman in Limassol and participated about a year ago in an assassination attempt on Israeli businessman Itzik Moshe in Georgia (November 2022) for months was allegedly in occupied Cyprus. Information showed him using the occupied territories as his base to have decisive contacts with various persons associated with terrorist acts.
The name by which his identity is identified – but does not appear to be his real name – is "Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablu". However, the latter in its action over the last decade uses a number of different names and telephone numbers.
These data, as our newspaper is aware, are known to the Cyprus Police and were forwarded by services cooperating with it. Some of them came to light through court proceedings against two Iranian asylum seekers, aged 38 and 51 respectively, who were arrested in Cyprus on November 3 on suspicion of plotting to murder an Israeli businessman holding a Cypriot passport, aided by Arablu.
In times of pandemic
Arablou had reportedly come to Cyprus during the coronavirus pandemic and had been in the occupied area for about four months. The same information states that he had private contacts with his compatriots in areas not controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
As we noted, it is believed that the purpose of his arrival on our island was to plan a terrorist attack against the Israeli, who acquired Cypriot citizenship and resided permanently in Limassol, where he was active in the real estate and land development industry. According to testimony obtained by police as part of the investigation into this case, Arablu had met with one of the two suspects arrested on November 3, 2023. The reason is a 51-year-old Iranian (second suspect) permanent resident of Cyprus.
In fact, Arablu and the 51-year-old allegedly had a private conversation in casinos in the occupied territories. They were already well acquainted and had contacts since the beginning of the last decade. According to testimony, Arablu and the 51-year-old met in 2011 in Georgia and had been talking by phone for the past five years.
In fact, the Cyprus Police obtained information saying that the aforementioned had been in contact frequently since last spring. In addition, the 51-year-old, who was arrested in early November, spoke on a regular basis with Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablu through the What's App platform. This reveals telecommunications data content held by the ICF Police Headquarters, which is investigating the case.
At the same time, Arablou has been registered in a Cyprus Police system since 2016 with a recommendation to be discreetly monitored. The reason was that he was considered a person who could carry out an act of terrorism.
"58-year-old" with a history
The 58-year-old, as presented by one of his two passports published by Israeli media (Yedioth Ahtonoth newspaper article – 10/12/2023), appears to have frequent contacts with Iranians abroad and mainly in Georgia, where he seems to have developed intense activity. The same publications "photograph" him as a member of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (considered the elite of the Iranian Armed Forces) with an organizational role.
As it is understood, Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablu appears to have a special background, which, it would not be an exaggeration to say, refers to action movies with intelligence agents. His first curious actions are placed in 2011. He is believed to have then planned a criminal act in the country's capital, Tbilisi. It was not clear whether this was one of three alleged attempts in recent years against Georgian-born Israeli businessman Itzik Moshe.
What is certain is that state security services and related publications (Iran International -16/01/2023) have directly linked him to the relatively recent assassination attempt on Moshe in November 2022. This businessman plays an important role for Israel's diplomacy in Eastern Europe.
According to the security authorities, Arablu participated in the ring that allegedly planned to murder the aforementioned and in fact, as "F" is aware, information that came to the knowledge of the Cypriot police, suggests that he "mediated for a Pakistani in Georgia to give a pistol to an Iranian to kill an Israeli".
During examinations by the Crime Detection Department of the Headquarters in the case of planning the murder of an Israeli businessman in Limassol a month ago, it emerged that Arablu is known by seven other names, while allegedly using at least 12 different telephone numbers.
The 58-year-old (this is his age based on the date of birth written on one of his passports), it is not clear where he lives. Testimony claims that he is active in Georgia, while other sources of information indicate that he is settled with his family in Azerbaijan.
He was also allegedly portrayed by a third person as a dissident businessman who could not travel to his native Iran. Testimony from a person who claimed to know him said he imported satellite antennas into Iran from Singapore.
It is related to the manufacture of false identities in the occupied areas
The role of Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablu came to light when a case was revealed ("Kathimerini" Cyprus, 10/12/2023) about a terrorist plot against Israeli interests in Cyprus, which was prevented thanks to the cooperation of the Cyprus Police with foreign services. Cyprus Police arrested two Iranians in early November who were receiving guidance from Arablu intending to murder Israeli citizens in the Republic of Cyprus.
Based on what "F" knows about the case, the Cyprus Police on 3/11/2023 arrested two Iranians permanently residing in Cyprus, a 38-year-old and a 51-year-old. The alleged target, according to what the ICF Headquarters argued before a court, was an Israeli businessman (real estate), holder of a Cypriot passport, who operates in Limassol.
The 38-year-old arrested man was employed by a subcontractor of the Israeli businessman for work on a building, but allegedly did not receive the amount owed to him. So he allegedly demanded the money from the Israeli businessman. The 38-year-old, at the same time, allegedly had telephone contacts with Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablou.
What the Cyprus Police say about the 51-year-old arrested man is impressive. The latter is shown going back and forth to the occupied areas, carrying out illegal activities there, but also traveling frequently to Georgia. At the same time, the ICF Headquarters has reportedly linked him to Arablu, who is considered a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Here are some points presented by the ICF Headquarters for the 51-year-old before a Court for the purpose of issuing a detention order:
-He changed his name to Arabic when he came to Cyprus.
He claims to be an Iranian dissident, but reportedly has close ties to the Iranian Embassy. He has known Arablou for more than a decade.
-Service information indicates that he has illegal activities in the occupied areas and is engaged there in the manufacture of false documents.
He has a company in Tbilisi, where he is allegedly associated with agents of the Revolutionary Guards.
-When a search warrant was executed at his home in the areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, 11 mobile phones and 12 telephone cards (sim) were found, among others.
-He claimed that his company in Tbilisi serves Iranians who go to Georgia by processing residency papers on their behalf.
-He communicated with telephone numbers allegedly belonging to Mohammad Reza Ebadi Arablu.
For the two Iranian suspects, the 38-year-old and the 51-year-old, Cypriot authorities issued detention and deportation orders. The two suspects allegedly tried to overturn the data against them and remain in the Republic.
However, this is the second identical case that the Cypriot authorities have dealt with in the last six months. We remind you that as "F" had revealed on 25/6/2023, in a front-page publication, during this period "a terrorist act on the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, aimed, as estimated, at the murder of citizens of Jewish origin". This was achieved thanks to coordinated actions by the Republic's intelligence service in cooperation with Western partners. And in that case in the frame were the occupied areas.
Costas Venizelos, who signed the report, noted: "This is a network of terrorists, who seem to make full use of the occupied areas from where their recruits are sent to the free areas from points not controlled by the Republic of Cyprus." The news was eventually confirmed by Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad. The latter had announced a few days later the arrest of Youssef Shahabazi Abbasalilu, whom it considered the mastermind of a terrorist operation allegedly planned by Iranian intelligence with the intention of hitting Israeli targets in Cyprus.
Denial by Iranian embassy
A continuous intense intelligence game between Israel and Iran is spoken of by those who follow geopolitical developments closely. A game that lit up for good after the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi in November 2020. The murderous ambush against him was attributed to the Mossad. Since then, Iran is portrayed by the Israeli government as having attempted on numerous occasions to carry out unsuccessful strikes against Israeli interests in various countries.
Tehran, however, does not accept the role assigned to it. The reaction of the Embassy of Iran when the writer on 17/02/2022 had published a report about the arrest of eight persons in Istanbul a few days earlier is also indicative. According to Sabah, led by Yasin Taheremamkendi, who has been named as Iran's Iranian intelligence official, they allegedly planned the assassination of 75-year-old Turkish-Israeli businessman Yair Geller.
This case had been associated by many media with the arrest of Orhan Asadov, then 38 years old in Nicosia (27/9/2021), who months earlier was accused of planning a terrorist act against an Israeli businessman and people close to him (the case is being heard by the Nicosia Assize Court). The Iranian Embassy in Nicosia, six days after our report, had intervened, stressing that what was published about Iranian agents operating in Cyprus and Turkey is not true. "Such reports, without doubt, will not jeopardize the longstanding and cordial relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Cyprus," the statement concluded.
Iran has taken an identical stance on many other occasions. He had denied what the Mossad announced last June after the arrest of Abasalilu who was allegedly planning a strike in Cyprus, while the country's Embassy in Athens spoke of baseless accusations when in March 2023, on the occasion of the arrest of two Pakistanis, reports spoke of dismantling an Iranian network planning attacks in Greece, specifically on a restaurant of Israeli interests.
The ammonia nitrate hypothesis
Cyprus has been a field for Cyprus many times in the past... dispute resolution concerning the Middle East:
In May 2015, police arrested a 26-year-old Lebanese member of Hezbollah. The latter was sentenced in June of the same year to 6 years in prison for participation in planned terrorist acts (against Israeli interests within the Republic of Cyprus).
He participated in the storage and transport of 8.2 tons of ammonia nitrate found in a house in Larnaka (Agioi Anargyroi) and with which an entire building block could be leveled. These were 447 cardboard boxes containing 65,573 packages of ammonia nitrate.
Convicted Hussein Bassam Abdallah, then 26, from Lebanon, had pleaded guilty to charges of membership of a criminal and terrorist organization. The offences were committed between 2012 and 27 May 2015.
On 07/07/2012 information was transmitted to the Police that Hossam Taleb YAACOUB, 24 years old, from Lebanon, holder of a Lebanese passport and a Swedish passport was a member of a terrorist organization and intends to carry out a terrorist act against Israeli or other foreign European delegations located in Cyprus. On the same day he was arrested by members of the ICF of Limassol. In testimony, he confessed that he is a member of the Hezbollah organization and that he visited Cyprus a total of four times, always with specific missions from Lebanon's Hezbollah. He was sentenced on 21/03/2013 by the Limassol Assize Court to four years in prison.
On September 25, 1985, three Israelis, two men and one woman, were murdered on a boat in the Larnaka marina by three members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Then the Israelis "responded" by bombing the PLO headquarters in Tunisia...
On 25/01/1973 the representative of Fatah in Cyprus, Hussein Bashir, was assassinated while staying at the Olympic Hotel. Mossad agents allegedly planted explosives under his bed. The Israelis considered Bashir a member of "September Mavrou."
On 15/021988 Israeli intelligence allegedly implemented a plan that resulted in the death of three high-ranking PLO officials after their car bomb exploded in Limassol.
On 11/05/1988: Palestinians caused tragedy in the center of Nicosia when they tried unsuccessfully to park a car bomb outside the Israeli embassy in the capital.
Due to their misunderstanding, an explosion occurred on the bridge of Pedieos, killing three people and injuring 19 others. One of the two attackers and two unsuspecting Greek Cypriots, a woman (Rodoula Siamidou) and a man (Andreas Frangos), died.
