Iranian report: Mossad agent arrested on border with Turkey

Haaretz Daily
Jan. 24, 2006

An Iranian website reported Monday that an agent working for the Israeli Mossad was arrested while crossing the border between Iran and Turkey.

The conservative Farda News website, considered to be closely aligned with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reported Iranian intelligence agents arrested a man who worked for Iran's Gachsaran oil company some 20 years ago. Fourteen years ago, the man allegedly hijacked an Iranian plane and landed it in Israel.

Farda News reported "the Zionist regime granted the man asylum and recruited him to work as a spy."

The report said Israel created a false identity for the man and sent him to Iran on an intelligence mission. It was not clear from the Iranian report whether the man was captured while attempting to enter Iran or leave in the direction of Turkey.

The Iranian story contained no additional confirmation that Iran had arrested a Mossad agent. Farda News, like all Iranian news websites, is subject to government supervision.

An Iranian plane was indeed hijacked and landed in Israel but the incident took place in 1995, not 14 years ago. The man involved in that incident was Rida Garari, a flight attendant who did not want to continue living in Iran. Garari, who hijacked a civilian airliner carrying 175 passengers on board, was subsequently convicted of air piracy and was sentenced to eight years in prison. In 1998, was granted refugee status in Canada.