Turkish security services have arrested two Syrians, including a former member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, over allegations of spying on behalf of the Syrian regime, AlKhaleejonline reported on Friday.
According to Anadolu, AlKhaleejonline said the two Syrians have been named simply as Ahmed D and Waleed A, and that they were arrested in a joint operation between Turkey’s anti-terror and intelligence services.
An electronic device and a map for Istanbul were seized along with Ahmed D, who was sending details regarding the locations of foreign embassies in Turkish cities via satellite to Damascus.
Regarding Waleed A, the Turkish services expected he was planning to carry out attacks across the country in cooperation with a team planned to move from Syria, aiming to destabilise Turkish public opinion.
The Turkish security series released a picture of suspect Waleed A, who closely resembles Waleed Al-Omari, a former member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition.
Former member of the legal office of the Coalition Mazen Al-Balakhi wrote on his Facebook page: “If the arrest of Waleed Al-Omari is true, Michael Kilo is blamed for his inclusion in the coalition as he insisted on including him despite widespread rejection.”
Al-Balakhi said that a large number of the coalition members knew that Al-Omari was an officer in the Syrian intelligence.
Marwan Al-Refa’e, a member of the Coalition, said that Al-Omari has invoked many doubts for a long time and he there were suspicions of him passing information about Coalition meetings to the Syrian regime.
He revealed that he knew that Al-Omari was put under the watch of the Turkish police over certain suspicions, as well as saying that he knew Turkey would not have allowed Al-Omari to re-enter the country should he have left it.
In June, Al-Omari was dismissed from the coalition after hitting the Coalition’s head Khalid Khoja in the face during a verbal clash regarding the inclusion of new members.