Two brothers from the Jerusalem area posed as a soldier from Israel’s elite Unit 8200 and passed fabricated intelligence to an Iranian agent, according to an indictment released Tuesday following requests by Kan News and Walla.
The indictment, filed in February at the Jerusalem District Court, alleges the brothers used artificial intelligence to create fake documents and information, which they sent via Telegram to the Iranian agent known as “David," receiving over 100,000 shekels in return.
The main defendant stole the identity of a young man from Telegram, claiming to be a 8200 soldier. He told the Iranian agent Israel had planned a strike on Iran in mid-January and even linked Israel to the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a May 2024 helicopter crash, creating a fake AI-generated report to “prove" it.
The brothers also fabricated a story about an Iranian citizen allegedly involved in the elimination of senior Iranian military figures during Operation “With the Wolf." They used AI to create a detailed scenario suggesting the individual had participated in surveillance of targeted officials.
The main defendant faces charges including contact with a foreign agent, providing information to an enemy, and impersonation. The second brother is charged with jointly providing information to an enemy. Their identities are being withheld at the request of their lawyer, Ariel Atari.
Atari called the indictment “outrageous," saying the brothers were patriotic Zionists who merely tricked the Iranians. “They invented information using AI, misled the enemy, and even got paid for it. The state should reward them for contributing to national security," he said.