Judge lifts gag order on names of brothers charged last month in Iran spy case

Meir and Yosef Nahum named in case after Supreme Court lifts gag order; brothers knowingly gave Iranian agents AI-generated fake army information in exchange for over $32,000

Meir and Yosef Nahum were named on Sunday as two brothers from the Jerusalem area who were indicted last month for handing fake, AI-generated information to Iranian agents in exchange for over NIS 100,000 ($32,000).

Their names were initially kept under a gag order until Sunday, when Supreme Court Justice Alex Stein accepted a request by the Walla news site and the Kan public broadcaster to allow their identities to be made public.

The brothers were arrested in January and were charged in the Jerusalem District Court with contact with a foreign agent, passing intelligence to the enemy, and impersonating an individual.

According to the indictment, the brothers received more than NIS 100,000 ($32,000) from several Iranian operatives while fully aware they were interacting with hostile actors.

They made extensive use of artificial intelligence to create fake maps and military reports, and even posed as an IDF intelligence officer in Unit 8200, prosecutors wrote.

West Bank District police investigators worked with the Shin Bet to probe the suspicions and completed the joint investigation last month.

“While some of the information that was transferred was not necessarily credible, it still had the potential to be used by the hostile actor,” police said.

The Supreme Court said that “imposing a publication ban on the name of a defendant after an indictment is filed is an exception within exceptions, reserved for extreme cases in which publication, with a high degree of probability, could lead to very serious harm.”

Ariel Atari, the pair’s defense attorney, decried the indictment last month as “outrageous” and claimed the investigation material proves the brothers are “Zionist patriots who sought to ‘sting’ the Iranians.”

The lawyer said his clients should not be indicted but rather awarded the Israel Prize for their “contribution to the security of the state” through what he insists were successful efforts to “harm the Iranian enemy.”

Police have, over the past two years, arrested more than 50 suspected spies for Iran in roughly 38 cases that have been made public.

Most, but not all, recruits have been known to spurn agents’ suggestions that they assassinate Israeli public figures.

Exceptions to the rule include a young man from Haifa and three others suspected of manufacturing explosives to harm a senior figure, widely reported to be former prime minister Naftali Bennett; a pair of Jewish young men from Tiberias, arrested while allegedly preparing to fly to Iran for training; and seven young men from Beit Safafa, an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, who allegedly planned to kill a prominent scientist and a mayor of a major city.

The growing number of Iranian agents has even prompted Israel to open up a new wing in Haifa’s Damon prison for those indicted on such espionage charges. Only one of the alleged spies has been convicted so far, as most cases are still making their way through the legal system.

The Israel Police are set to form a new unit to handle cases of people spying for Iran, Channel 13 news reported on Friday.