Prosecutors are seeking prison terms of up to 30 years for 11 defendants, including Iranian spies, on charges of an attempt to abduct a defecting Iranian military commander in the eastern province of Van, which shares a border with Iran.

M.A., a pilot with the rank of major in the Iranian army, had filed a criminal complaint last year, claiming that unknown people had tried to abduct him. Eight people were arrested in September 2021 in connection with the incident in a joint operation by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and police.

An indictment approved by Fourth High Criminal Court in Van seek prison terms for defendants on charges of espionage, membership in a criminal organization and attempt to abduct. The indictment says the defendants tried to kidnap M.A., who took shelter in Turkey in 2018 after illegally crossing the border, several times but they failed every time.

M.A. had told investigators that in one instance he was taken to a village in Van’s Özalp district by C.S., one of the defendants he originally negotiated with and paid to travel to Canada as an illegal immigrant. He claimed C.S. sought to deliver him to Iranian intelligence there in exchange for $20,000 but this attempt failed when the intelligence officials did not show up. He said he found out about this plot much later and he was subjected to another abduction attempt in August 2021, when he confronted C.S. in the latter’s office for a refund. He said he and his spouse were forced into a car but when she screamed and shouted that they were being abducted, suspects took them out of the car and fled.

"I was aware of abduction attempts against other Iranian soldiers who sought refuge in Turkey by Iranian intelligence. I believe those people who tried to abduct me acted in cooperation with Iranian intelligence," he told investigators. He said they tried to abduct him again, with the assistance of M.E., one of the witnesses in the case who reported the attempt to police. M.E. told investigators that the defendants offered him $10,000 and asked him to lace M.A.’s drinks with a sleeping pill. "They told me to have him sleep and contact them. I pretended to go ahead with their plan and called the police. If M.A. was abducted, he would be executed in Iran," he said.

The indictment says defendants ran reconnaissance around M.A.’s home for three days and were in possession of "equipment" like tape to tie him up when they were detained. It also says that they found various photos of M.A. in possession of the suspects as well as confidential documents in their residences during raids.

The prosecutors also said suspects plotted the abduction while in Iran and S.H., one of the defendants, was one of the masterminds of the attempt and monitored the process from Iran.

M.A. has told Voice of America (VOA) Farsi service in an interview last year that he was threatened when he refused deployment to Syria and decided to flee the country. He has said that he alerted Turkish intelligence when he grew suspicious of a woman who contacted him. "Turkish intelligence wiretapped her phone and found out that the woman was in contact with an Iranian intelligence operative and acquired tranquilizers from him," he has said.

This is not the first time Iranian suspects have plotted abductions and murders in Turkey. Earlier this year, MIT had uncovered a plot by Iranian operatives to kill an Israeli-Turkish tycoon.