Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and the police announced Monday morning that they had arrested a resident of the central city Rishon LeZion suspected of carrying out surveillance missions near the home of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, allegedly on behalf of Iran.
The suspect, Vadim Kupriyanov, an Israeli citizen in his early 40s, was arrested in December on suspicion of committing security offenses under the direction of Iranian intelligence operatives. According to investigators, Kupriyanov was detained after being identified as having filmed near Bennett’s residence as part of contacts with Iranian handlers, during which he was instructed to purchase a dash camera to carry out the task.
Interrogation by the Shin Bet and police revealed that over the past two months Kupriyanov had been asked to carry out a range of security-related missions. As part of this activity, he allegedly transferred various photographs he took in his city of residence and in other cities at the request of his handlers, in exchange for different sums of money.
Following the conclusion of the investigation, an indictment against Kupriyanov is expected to be filed Thursday at the Lod District Court by the Central District Prosecutor’s Office.
Bennett responded to the disclosure, saying: “Iran’s efforts to harm me will not stop me from my life’s mission. Am Yisrael Chai (The people of Israel live).”
The arrest comes against the backdrop of the hacking of Bennett’s Telegram account last week, during which Iranian hackers published 141 pages containing thousands of phone numbers and personal correspondences belonging to the former prime minister. Bennett initially said in response that “the matter is being handled by the relevant security and cyber authorities. The device is not currently in use.” His office later updated that “following the checks carried out, it appears that Bennett’s phone was not hacked.” Only hours later did Bennett issue a revised statement acknowledging the breach.
In a statement released a week ago, Bennett said: “The matter is being handled by the security authorities. Israel’s enemies will do everything they can to prevent me from becoming prime minister again. It will not help them. No one will stop me from acting and fighting for the State of Israel and the people of Israel. After further examination, it appears that my phone itself was not hacked, but access was gained to my Telegram account through various means. Content from the phone contact list was obtained, and many real and fake images and chats were distributed. This content was obtained illegally, and its distribution constitutes a criminal offense.”
The hacking group, calling itself Handala, published nearly 2,000 HTML files alongside the phone numbers, most of which contained correspondence, many of them partial. Some of the exchanges date back to 2022, while others are from the past two years. The group dubbed the breach “Operation Octopus.” Among the phone numbers published were those of world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, as well as Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thousands of phone numbers belonging to journalists, spokespeople and senior officials were also published.