Turkish intelligence arrested a man they say spied on Arabs in Turkey on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, a senior Turkish government official said. The arrest comes amid increasing tension between Ankara and Abu Dhabi after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to suspend relations when the Emiratis established official ties with Israel.
Ahmad al-Astal, a 45-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, had Jordanian travel documents when he was taken into custody in Turkey. He traveled to Turkey using the passport of an Arab country other than that of the UAE.
Astal’s family in Gaza issued a statement on social media on September 25 saying he had been “kidnapped” four days earlier in Turkey. His family said Astal was a journalist who had worked in the UAE for a decade before moving to Turkey where he worked at several media outlets, including state news agency Anadolu.
In a second statement, his family accused Turkey of handling the matter in an “opaque” manner, adding that any confessions Astal made under duress should not be used. The family urged Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to intervene, saying Astal’s wife and two daughters are on their own in Turkey, and are suffering psychologically.
The United Arab Emirates, Turkey's regional rival, has recently joined the Saudi-led campaign for boycotting Turkish products. A move that raised the ire of the Turkish president.
Last year, Turkey arrested two other people on charges of spying on behalf of the UAE , Saudi Arabia’s closest Arab ally, including one who had allegedly arrived in Turkey shortly after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Authorities said at the time that they were investigating the possibility that the men could have been involved in his killing.
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