Turkish Family, Four Others Jailed 100 Years for Mossad Espionage
A Turkish court has sentenced a family of three and three other individuals to a combined 100 years in prison for allegedly spying on behalf of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The Istanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court found Ahmet Ersin Tumlucalı, the owner of an insurance company, guilty of leading the espionage ring. He was sentenced to 22 years and six months, later reduced to 18 years and nine months due to good behavior. His wife, Benan Tumlucalı, received 16 years and eight months, while his stepdaughter, Dila Sultan Şimşek, was handed 15 years, seven months, and 15 days.
Three other accomplices – Cem Ozcan, Ozkan Arican, and Fuzuli Simsek – were each sentenced to 15 years, seven months, and 15 days.
The defendants were originally arrested by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in April 2024 during a surveillance operation in Istanbul. Authorities accused them of collecting sensitive information and conducting photo surveillance on foreign nationals residing in Turkey, particularly those who had fled conflict zones.
According to the indictment, the group passed confidential information to Mossad, with Tumlucalı allegedly communicating with an Israeli agent codenamed “Jorg” via Skype. They reportedly met in Vienna and Munich between 2011 and 2017. Tumlucalı also allegedly met another Mossad contact, Gavin Alfron, in Vienna and Frankfurt from 2017 to 2020, when his services were reportedly terminated.
Beyond Turkish borders, Tumlucalı is said to have carried out surveillance operations in Germany and Georgia, and handed over official documents from Lebanon. His targets included Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Azerbaijani nationals.
Investigators found that Tumlucalı’s wife and stepdaughter, along with his sister-in-law Berna Çetin, played roles in supporting his operations. Payments totaling hundreds of thousands of euros were allegedly traced to Benan Tumlucalı’s bank account between 2014 and 2019.
CNN Turk’s Istanbul News Director, Nihat Uludağ, stated that Mossad has long attempted to operate within Türkiye by recruiting locals rather than deploying its own agents.
MIT said the espionage ring had access to both government-held data and private citizen information, all of which were reportedly shared with the Israeli intelligence agency.
