www.msn.com by Renee Maltezou, Cassell Bryan-Low, Yannis Souliotis and Phil Stewart
As the Iran-Israel conflict intensifies, Tehran is roiling the West with a wave of attempted hits and kidnappings against targets in Europe and the United States.
Washington and its allies have reported a sharp rise in such plots linked to the Islamic Republic in recent years. Since 2020, there have been at least 33 assassination or abduction attempts in the West in which local or Israeli authorities allege an Iran link, Reuters found in an examination of court documents and public statements by government officials.
Among recent alleged targets: a building that houses a Jewish center and kosher restaurant in downtown Athens.
From his perch in Iran, a Pakistani named Sayed Fakhar Abbas recruited an old acquaintance living in Greece and directed him to attack the site, investigators allege in documents submitted to judicial authorities in the case and viewed by Reuters. Abbas told his contact that he was working for a group that would pay some 15,000 euros per kill.
In a January 2023 WhatsApp exchange detailed in the documents, the two men discussed whether to use explosives or arson in the attack. Abbas stressed the need to provide proof of casualties after the strike. “There are secret agencies” involved, he said, without naming names. “Do the job in a way that does not leave any room for complaints by them.”
The previously unreported documents include hundreds of pages of evidence gathered during Greece’s pre-trial probe, including witness testimony, police statements and details of WhatsApp messages. They purport to show how Abbas groomed his contact, a slim-built fellow Pakistani named Syed Irtaza Haider, as the two drifted between prosaic talk of life back home and plotting attacks.
Greek authorities arrested Haider and another Pakistani last year, saying police helped dismantle a terrorist network directed from abroad that intended to inflict “human loss.” The two men face terrorism-related charges. They deny wrongdoing.
Haider, released from pre-trial detention this spring with restrictions, says he’s innocent. In an interview, the 28-year-old told Reuters he sent Abbas images of the building but intentionally stalled on carrying out any attack, hoping to get paid without harming anyone.
“It was all talk but no action,” he said. His lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, said Haider “never participated substantially” in illegal activity.
Alleged ringleader Abbas also faces terrorism-related charges. Back home in Pakistan, he is wanted on suspicion of murder, a Pakistani police official said. Abbas remains at large and couldn’t be reached for comment. The third suspect also couldn’t be reached. That man has denied wrongdoing, according to Iraklis Stavaris, a lawyer who represented him when he was charged.
Greek police declined to comment. The case awaits a decision by judicial authorities about whether to proceed to trial, according to Haider’s lawyer.
Israeli intelligence service Mossad, which assisted the Greek probe, has said the planned attack was orchestrated by Iran as part of a multinational network operated from the Islamic Republic. The Israeli government declined to comment on the case or on other Mossad activities…
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