Turkish lawyer detained for selling information to Mossad

ANKARA/ISTANBUL

Turkish authorities detained on Friday a lawyer accused of selling information to detectives working for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, security sources said.

Tugrulhan Dip was arrested in Istanbul in a joint operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the city’s Counterterrorism Police Department, the sources said.

Dip is suspected of supporting Serkan Cicek, a private detective also captured and detained, and worked with several other detectives engaged in espionage for Israel. One of these detectives, Musa Kus, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for spying activities.

Dip provided detectives with personal data from public records for financial gain and sold the information he accessed through a panel he had created -- an illegal data inquiry system.

Earlier in the day, authorities detained private detective Cicek, accused of working for Mossad in a joint operation with prosecutors and police in Istanbul, the sources said. The operation was code-named Metron Activity.

Security officials said he had been working for Mossad and was in contact with Faysal Rasheed, a member of Israel’s Online Operations Center.

Cicek allegedly admitted to carrying out surveillance in Istanbul, at Rasheed’s request, on a Palestinian activist who opposes Israel’s Middle East policies.