Turkey arrests 13 over abduction of Iranian dissident

Turkey has arrested 13 people involved in the abduction and smuggling to Iran of an Iranian dissident wanted by Tehran in connection with a deadly 2018 attack in southwestern Iran, Anadolu Agency reported on Dec. 14.

Habib Chaab, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist leader, was drugged and kidnapped by a network working "on behalf of Iran's intelligence service" after being lured into flying to Turkey by an Iranian intelligence operative, Reuters reported, quoting a senior official.

Iran's state media said in November that Iranian intelligence ministry officers arrested Chaab over suspected involvement in a 2018 attack on a military parade that killed dozens of people, without saying when or how he was detained.

Chaab, who was based in Sweden, was persuaded to fly to Turkey to meet a woman who, unknown to him, worked for Iranian intelligence, according to the Turkish official.

When he arrived in Istanbul he went to a rendezvous point, where he was drugged and tied down, the official said. Istanbul police said Chaab was spirited from the city to Turkey's eastern province of Van, and from there across the border into Iran.

The 11 people were arrested two weeks ago, police said.

The account of Chaab's abduction was first reported by the Washington Post. There was no immediate public comment from Iran.

Dissidents targeted

Chaab's detention comes one year after another Iranian dissident, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani, was shot dead on an Istanbul street. Two senior officials told Reuters that the killing was instigated by intelligence officers at Iran's consulate in Turkey.

Turkish broadcaster CNN Türk said the operation to detain the 11 suspected of abducting Chaab was also prompted by the...

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