The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

A16 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020

cent weeks, the Austrian press

has reported on the arrest of a

Turkish citizen in Vienna who

turned himself in to the police

and said he worked for Turkish

intelligence and had been or-

dered to shoot a Kurdish Austrian

politician. Turkey has denied that

the Turkish man ever worked for

its intelligence agency.

A media spokesman for the

UAE did not reply to a message

seeking comment on the allega-

tions against Astal.

Astal lived on Turkey’s Black

Sea coast and disappeared in late

September, according to his fam-

ily and colleagues, who feared he

had been kidnapped and had

launched a public campaign to

shared with The Washington Post

suggested Ahmed al-Astal — said

to be known to Emirati handlers

as Abu Layla — had been coerced

into espionage more than a dec-

ade ago. He had initially turned

down an offer to work for Emirati

intelligence in 2008 but relented

after failing background security

checks when he applied for a job,

the summary said.

After moving to Turkey, he

“concentrated on Turkey’s rela-

tions with the Muslim world, for-

eign policy initiatives and domes-

tic politics,” the summary said. He

was also tasked with establishing

whether the government of Presi-

dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

which survived a coup attempt in

BY KAREEM FAHIM

istanbul — Turkey’s intelligence
agency has detained a Jordanian
citizen suspected of spying for the
United Arab Emirates, a Turkish
official said, in a move that high-
lights a rivalry between the two
governments marked by intrigue
and intensifying public acrimony.
The suspect, Ahmed al-Astal,
45, is originally Palestinian and
had been working as a journalist.
He had confessed to working for
the UAE and was expected to
appear in court this week, accord-
ing to the Turkish official, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to discuss intelligence
matters. Astal’s work, overseen by
Emirati handlers whom he said
he knew by nicknames, included
reporting on Turkish political de-
velopments and keeping tabs on
Arab dissidents living in exile, the
official said.
Turkey and the UAE have com-
peted for regional influence over
most of the past decade, promot-
ing opposing ideological visions
that have divided the Middle
East. In particular, they have
sparred over Turkey’s support for
political Islamist movements,
which the UAE views as a regional
threat. The two governments
have also squared off in Libya,
providing military support to op-
posing sides in the civil war.
The arrest marks the third time
in the past two years Turkey has
detained someone suspected of
spying for the UAE. Two men who
were arrested in April 2019 were
said to be collecting information
on Palestinian factions in Turkey,
according to local media reports.
One of the men, Zaki Hasan, died
while in custody, in what the
government called an apparent
suicide.
News of Astal’s arrest Friday
was first reported by the Reuters
news agency, which did not re-
veal his name, and came just days
after press accounts suggested
Turkey was actively conducting
its own aggressive surveillance of
perceived enemies abroad. In re-

2016, was vulnerable to another

one. And he “passed information

to the UAE about Turkey-based

Arab journalists and dissidents,

who may be vulnerable to recruit-

ment efforts by Emirati intelli-

gence,” the summary said, includ-

ing recordings of meetings with

Brotherhood-linked dissidents.

On at least one occasion, in the

spring of 2016, an Emirati intelli-

gence official visited Astal in Tur-

key, but otherwise he communi-

cated with his superiors remotely,

using chat programs as well as

custom messaging software his

handlers had installed on Astal’s

computer, according to the sum-

mary. After initially threatening

his livelihood, Astal’s handlers

paid him approximately

$400,000 over the period he was

in their employ, it said.

The summary did not say how

Astal came to the attention of

Turkish intelligence. The Turkish

official said Astal was on the run

for a few weeks before he was

captured.

The threat Arab dissidents face

in Turkey came into sharp relief

after the killing of Jamal

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist

critical of his country’s govern-

ment, in Istanbul by Saudi agents

in 2018. But even as Turkey has

sought to highlight domestic in-

terference by its overseas adver-

saries, its own pursuit of enemies

abroad has come under growing

scrutiny.

The latest episode, in Austria,

unfolded after a 53-year-old Turk-

ish national named Feyyaz Oz-

turk turned himself in at a police

station in Vienna in September.

He said he was a Turkish intelli-

gence agent with orders to shoot

Aygul Berivan Aslan, a former

Kurdish politician who was criti-

cal of the Turkish government,

according to a police report.

Ozturk’s confession was first

reported by Zack Zack, an online

news outlet, and the New York

Times.

Turkey’s ambassador to Aus-

tria, Ozan Ceyhun, told Turkey’s

state-run Anadolu news agency

that Ozturk “does not have any

relationship with Turkish intelli-

gence and my country.”

[email protected]

Hazem Balousha in Gaza and

Loveday Morris in Berlin contributed

to this report.

Turkey accuses man of spying for United Arab Emirates

AHMET BOLAT/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

The h eadquarters of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization in Istanbul, shown in July. A Turkish official said the agency arrested

Ahmed al-Astal, 45, a Jordanian citizen who had been working as a journalist. The official said he confessed to working for the UAE.

Arrest highlights

growing divide between

Middle Eastern rivals

persuade the Turkish authorities

to investigate his disappearance.

A brother, Hussam al-Astal, said

in an interview that he was not

aware of the arrest and did not

believe Ahmed, who lived in the

UAE until moving to Turkey in

2013, was a spy or had any rela-

tionship with the Emirati govern-

ment.

Rather, he said, Ahmed was

considered a dissident by the

UAE because of his support for

the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood

movement. “How can he be ac-

cused in this matter?” said his

brother, who lives in the Gaza

Strip.

A summary of the findings by

Turkish intelligence that were

News of the man’s arrest came just days after

press accounts suggested Turkey was actively

conducting its own aggressive surveillance a broad.

To receive a live stream reminder for this

event, visit wapo.st/aliciagarza

Race in America

Creating Change

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Alicia Garza

Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter

Hosted by The Post’s Robin Givhan

on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET