Turkey detains 11 people for kidnapping an Iranian opponent

Turkey has arrested 11 suspects accused of having collaborated with Iran in the kidnapping of a dissident on the national territory. They are all of Turkish nationality; According to police sources, Habib Chaab, a figure of the Iranian dissidence, who had been in exile in Sweden for 14 years, disappeared last October after traveling to Turkey, to be arrested days later, according to Iran, in its territory.

Chaab is believed to have led a branch of the Movement for the Arab Struggle for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA) from Sweden. This group is accused by Iran of having committed several attacks, including one in 2018 in the city of Ahvaz that would have left 25 dead in a military parade. Sources linked to ASMLA, assure that the attack was perpetrated by the self-styled Islamic State, in addition to being claimed by the group itself.

Habib Chaab would have moved to Turkey, according to sources, last October, where he was to meet a woman who would also have arrived the day before from Iran with a false passport. However, according to the Turkish investigations that have led to the arrest of these 11 suspects, Chaab was driven to a gas station where he was drugged, put into a van and transferred to Iran through the eastern border of Van province. Just days after his disappearance, Iranian media announced his arrest in the country.

It seems that Naji Sharifi Zindasti, a well-known drug trafficker, could be behind the execution of the kidnapping, in exchange for the withdrawal of the death sentence that weighs on him in Iran, and that has kept him in Turkey since 2007.

According to Chaab’s close surroundings, the woman who would have taken him to Turkey would have offered him money, something that she would have given him previously, since Chaab was in debt. The fact that they planned to meet in Qatar in the first place reinforces the belief that it is a movement orchestrated with Iran in areas where it moves easily.

Similarities to other kidnappings

The coincidences between this kidnapping and that of another opponent of the Iranian regime, Ruholá Zam, who was already executed last Saturday in Iran, leave no room for doubt. In the case of Zam, who was also in exile in France, he was lured to Iraq, from where he disappeared and later, as in the case of Chaab, he was announced as a detainee in Iran.

Turkey is also very aware of the death of another dissident journalist, this time a Saudi, Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated at the Saudi Embassy in Turkey after he was tricked into traveling to the country. The rapid arrest of these 11 suspects seeks to give a coup of authority to show that Turkey does not want to be the scene of this type of event, since in November another Iranian dissident was assassinated in Istanbul, in an attack that is also linked to Iranian intelligence .

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