An Arab dentist from central Israel has been accused of espionage after contacting Iranian foreign agents. The suspect has been named as Iman Haj Yahya, a 50-year-old resident of Taibe. Approximately two weeks ago, the Central District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment against Yahya with the Lod District Court reports Ynet.

The Arab communist Balad party condemned the indictment. The reason might be because Yahya, aside from working as a dentist in his hometown, was an official in the Balad party after quitting in 2014. That party is now a part of the Joint Arab List. Following his resignation, he started a movement to free Arab security prisoners called “Friends of the Prisoner” which was subsequently outlawed.

The state prosecution indicted Yahya, a 50-year-old Taibe resident for espionage against Israel. According to the indictment, Dr. Yahya was clandestinely recruited by the Iran’s intelligence services to spy on Israel and to carry out attacks against the Jewish state. In his possession, among other things, was an encrypted device for communicating with the enemy that he received from them.

He is now being charged with illegal contact with a foreign agent, espionage, delivering information to an enemy with intent to harm, evidence tampering, money laundering as well as disrupting court proceedings.

According to the initial charge, from 2018-2019, Yahya was in contact with a Lebanese citizen named Khalid Yamani via Facebook. He then met Yamani in Denmark in April of 2018, then in Paris in September that same year. During their rendezvous in France, Yamani told Yahya that he was an intermediary of the Iranian intelligence who wanted to contact Yahya and work with him clandestinely.

After Yahya agreed to the arrangements, Yamani provided him with an encryption device and taught to him how to operate it. Yamani then told him to contact the Iranian officials using the device following his return to Israel. However when he tried to use the device to contact Iran, he was unsuccessful.

Upon realizing that he couldn’t operate the device, Yamani tried to explain to him how to resolve the malfunction. But Yahya panicked and threw encryption device into a sewer. He also burned a note on which he wrote the e-mail address that he was supposed to use to pass the encrypted messages to the Iranian intelligence.

The second indictment against Yahya states that in February 2020, the Yahya met three times with Yamani in Budapest. The meetings involved two other men who presented themselves as representatives of Iran’s security forces. “Yahya provided a great deal of information to the Iranians and spoke to them on a range of issues, all with the intention of assisting Iran in its efforts to harm the State of Israel by gathering data on Israel’s intelligence, security, political, civil, social, social and media,” the indictment stated.

‘Yahya and the Iranian agents agreed to continue a clandestine relationship after the his return to Israel through a new encryption device they gave him. “It was agreed that after The defendant’s return to Israel he would be required to assist the Iranians on several levels, including recommending other potential recruits, providing on the security activity against the State of Israel,’ the indictment reads.

Below is a video of Yahya being interviewed by Lebanese television on the subject of Arab security prisoners in Israel.