Sixteen people were tried in Istanbul on charges of “political and military” espionage for Israel, Krasnaya Vesna news agency reports, citing The Times of Israel.

According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, the accused, including Palestinians and Syrians, were arrested in October in an operation by Turkey's national intelligence agency. Now, if convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

The suspects spied on Palestinian and Turkish students and others for Israel, operating in five separate groups. Some of them likely met with Israeli officials in Switzerland, Croatia, Romania and Kenya. Turkish intelligence officials reportedly followed the group for a year before carrying out an operation to detain the members of the network.

Turkish authorities have not commented on the arrests.

After the suspects were taken into custody, the former Mossad deputy chief denied that those arrested were Israeli spies.

Reports of the lawsuit came amid warming relations between Israel and Turkey after years of strained relations and shortly after the two presidents began talking about a possible meeting.

bbabo.Net