Elimelech Stern, a chossid from Beit Shemesh, confessed during a Shin Bet interrogation that he eventually understood he was interacting with Iranian operatives, as reported by Avishai Greenzeig on Monday evening on Kan Reshet Bet.
In his interrogation, Stern stated: “I realized that ‘Ana’ (the undercover alias of the Iranian agent) was likely part of something larger, something with extensive reach, and I started to fear for my own safety. I was concerned that if I approached the police, I would be endangering myself.” He further confessed, “I suspected they might be from hostile nations.”
When questioned about why he continued to carry out assignments even after suspecting the group was a terrorist organization, he explained that he did so “possibly to earn a bit of money.”
During one of the sessions, Stern broke down and admitted: “I know I was wrong. I failed big time. It’s more that I continued with her, and didn’t overcome my fear and go to the police station.”
“I understood that there was an organization behind this and that’s why I chose to use Telegram, because it’s encrypted. And no one can, I realized there was something fishy. Something here is not right, and I will not publish that I did it. Something in between the lines is not kosher.”
Despite his statements during the interrogation, his lawyer argued that Stern is a Vizhnitzer chossid who has not studied Hebrew or English, and thus relied on Google Translate, which impeded his ability to comprehend that he was conversing with a foreign agent.
Regarding the tasks he was given, Stern mentioned: “I had two possibilities: either she is outside of Israel planning to create chaos in Israel, or she is from the anarchist left wing and intends to incite disorder.”
{Matzav.com Israel}