Turkish intelligence arrested six people over a suspected Iran-linked espionage cell accused of gathering sensitive military and security information, the Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The cell carried out reconnaissance around the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey and used commercial activity as cover, the paper said.
Investigators said the network was directed by Iranian intelligence officers Najaf Rostami, known as “Haji,” and Mahdi Yekeh Dehghan, referred to as “Doctor,” according to Daily Sabah.
The investigation found that one of the suspects, Iranian national Ashkan Jalali, based in Ankara, planned the transfer of armed unmanned aerial vehicles from Turkey to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot administration through companies he owned, Bulaq Robotics and Arete Industries, it said.
Jalali and another suspect, Alican Koç, attended specialized drone training sessions in Iran in August and September 2025, according to the report.
Police detained defense industry company owners Erhan Ergelen and Taner Özcan, textile businessperson Cemal Beyaz, Remzi Beyaz, Koç and Jalali in Istanbul-centered raids. An Istanbul court later arrested all six on charges of “obtaining confidential state information for political or military espionage,” Daily Sabah said.
The paper said Ergelen and Özcan traveled to Iran in October 2025 and played roles in drone shipment plans to Greek Cyprus. In testimony, Remzi Beyaz said he was offered money to take part in assassination plots targeting Iranian dissidents.
The network used encrypted messaging under the code name “Güvercin” and financed its activities by disguising operations as commercial drone trade, the paper added.
The judiciary identified him as Hamidreza Sabet Esmailipour and said he was arrested on April 29, 2025. It said he was convicted of “espionage and intelligence cooperation,” alleging he communicated with an intelligence officer and handed over documents and classified information.
In a detailed account published by Mizan, the judiciary’s official media outlet, authorities said Sabet Esmailipour had carried out logistical and support tasks for what they described as Israeli intelligence operations, including moving vehicles between provinces and transferring funds. The report alleged some of the vehicles contained explosives intended for sabotage operations, claims that could not be independently verified.
Mizan said the man acknowledged cooperating with Mossad during interrogations and court proceedings, and that his death sentence was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court before being carried out by hanging.
Iran has executed more than a dozen people in recent months on charges of spying for Israel, cases that human rights groups say often involve opaque legal proceedings.
Iranian authorities have said more than 700 people were detained on suspicion of espionage or collaboration with Israel following the conflict in June.
US-based rights group HRANA said in a report earlier this month that at least 313 prisoners were executed by hanging during a period of nationwide protests between late December and late January, adding that executions surged alongside mass arrests and a security crackdown as unrest spread and internet access was widely restricted.
Shahpari was shot by security forces on January 8, 2026, during protests in Baharestan, Isfahan province, people familiar with the matter told Iran International.
The sources, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said security forces opened fire indiscriminately on protesters that night.
“They opened fire on everyone that night, men and women, young and old,” the source said.
Videos sent to Iran International show gunshots being heard as protesters chant “long live the King” in Baharestan on January 8.
Security forces shot Shahpari in the leg on Isar Street in Baharestan sometime between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time, causing him to fall to the ground, a source said.
Wounded but alive, he was taken by ambulance to Al-Zahra Hospital in Isfahan.
“He was not dead when he was taken to hospital,” the source added.
For days afterward, Shahpari’s family searched hospitals across Isfahan. Authorities repeatedly told them he was wounded and alive but refused to say where he was, the source said.
“Then there was nothing. No answers.”
Three days later, the family’s search ended near Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery, Isfahan’s main burial ground.
With the cemetery morgue full, bodies were being kept in a storage warehouse used for fruit and vegetables near Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery, the source said.
“There was no space ... They had put the bodies in a warehouse. As far as the eye could see, there were bodies,” putting the total at a minimum of 500.
When the body was found, a gunshot wound was visible on the side of his head, which the source said was not present when he was taken to hospital.
The source said they believed it was a gunshot to execute him and that he had been operated upon on his abdomen without his family's knowledge and later stitched back up.
About 18 miles southeast of Baharestan, also in Isfahan province, in the provincial capital, another source told Iran International that at the height of protests, “several containers of bodies” were brought to Bagh-e Rezvan in the middle of the night and unloaded into warehouses.
According to the source, some of the bodies were still alive and semi-conscious.
Shahpari, 32, was originally from Izeh in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran, but had moved to Baharestan in search of work.
To support himself, he worked nights as a building security guard and spent his days unloading cargo as a laborer.
“He was a freedom-seeker,” a source said. “He opposed religion and supported the monarchy.”
Shahpari was buried on January 18, 2026, in the village of Nashil-e Do near Izeh.
“He was buried wrapped in the lion and sun flag, just as he wished...just as we all do.”
