The Central District Court in Lod on Wednesday sentenced Alexander Granovsky of Petah Tikva to 13.5 years in prison after he was convicted of offenses against state security for maintaining ongoing contact with an Iranian agent and carrying out missions on his behalf. The sentence was imposed as part of an agreement between the parties, and Granovsky was also given a suspended prison sentence.
Granovsky confessed to and was convicted of all the offenses attributed to him in the indictment filed by the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, including contact with a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy, multiple counts of defacing property, and arson.
The State Attorney’s Office noted that this is the harshest sentence imposed to date in the series of indictments against defendants who established contact with Iranian agents on social media and carried out tasks for them.
According to the indictment, Granovsky communicated with the Iranian agent through Telegram while Israel was engaged in a multi-front war, including against Iran. At the agent’s direction, he documented facilities at power stations and the neighborhood where MK Benny Gantz lives and sent the videos to the agent.
Granovsky was also convicted of setting fire to nine vehicles and spray-painting graffiti at the agent’s direction. In addition, he was instructed to destroy IDF uniforms and served as an intermediary for the agent in an attempt to find people with criminal records to carry out violent acts.
According to the indictment, while carrying out the missions, Granovsky followed “security instructions" intended to conceal his identity and prevent his activities from being discovered. He was aware that the agent was acting on behalf of an entity hostile to Israel and understood the agent’s objectives, but nevertheless continued to cooperate with him.
It also emerged that Granovsky proposed missions on his own initiative and repeatedly urged the agent to give him additional and more significant assignments. In return for the missions he carried out, he received thousands of dollars from the agent through a digital wallet.
The Central District Prosecutor’s Office said, “The State Attorney’s Office views with the utmost severity any form of cooperation with agents acting on behalf of hostile entities whose objective is to harm the State of Israel, its citizens, and the security forces."
It added that “the precedent-setting sentence agreed upon reflects the gravity of the acts."
In its ruling, the court addressed the significance of the sentence agreed upon by the parties: “The severe sentence sought by the parties - 13.5 years’ imprisonment - reflects, among other things, considerations of general deterrence."
The court added that its purpose is to ensure that “anyone tempted to act on behalf of a hostile entity for financial gain should know that he can expect a very lengthy and extremely severe prison sentence."