Haifa District Court sentenced 28-year-old Haifa resident, Dimitri Cohen, to eight and a half years in prison on Monday, after he was convicted of having contact with a foreign agent and seven additional offenses of attempting to provide information that could be used by the enemy, Iran, and its terrorist proxies, during wartime.
Cohen was arrested in May of last year, in a joint operation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Central Unit of Israel Police’s Coastal District. He was found to have carried out a series of tasks for a foreign agent who presented themselves as a private investigator.
According to an indictment filed against him by the Haifa District Attorney's Office, Cohen was looking for work online in the spring of 2025, when a man calling himself "David" approached him with an offer to carry out tasks for which he would be paid $500 per task in cryptocurrency.
"David" introduced himself as the owner of a private investigation firm called "Jupiter” that specialized in investigating cases of infidelity between spouses. "David" instructed Cohen to perform various surveillance tasks for him, beginning in Tirat Carmel.
Cohen was also asked to purchase an "operational" phone and a SIM card to use to contact the foreign agent. "David" spoke to him in Russian with a heavy Caucasian accent and through phone numbers with Russian and Portuguese area codes.
Cohen instructed to photograph private homes, roadways, ports
Cohen, who lived near the Haifa Port passenger terminal, was initially asked to observe and photograph private homes, the Baha'i Gardens, and Haifa Bay.
Later, he was instructed to photograph sections of major roads throughout the country, including along coastal roads, Highway 4, and the road alongside Highway 40 from Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon. Cohen also photographed the road from Kibbutz Samar to Eilat, the Port of Eilat, and ships in the Bay of Eilat.
The court noted that Cohen not only photographed the roadsides but also directional signs, power lines, facilities, and infrastructure along the roads, and the Hadera power plant.
Cohen did edit some of the videos he filmed, deleting documentation of military bases and sensitive facilities, after realizing that the information was of security value. However, the court ruled that providing the information and photographs that he did include could have aided the enemy and posed a broader intelligence threat.
Judges ruled Cohen 'turned blind eye' to warning signs
The court ruled that from the beginning of Cohen’s engagement with “David,” he suspected that “David” was an agent acting on behalf of Iran, and that the suspicion grew stronger as the missions became more security-related.
Judges Erez Porat, Nitzan Silman, and Rivka Eisenberg ruled that Cohen "turned a blind eye" to the many warning signs, including the use of foreign phone numbers, unusual payments, warnings from his friends and his partner, and the fact that he was unable to locate the private investigation firm that allegedly employed him.
In the sentencing decision, the judges noted that Cohen’s offenses were committed while Israel was engaged in an active war with Iran and its terrorist proxies, and that harsher punishment was necessary given the growing number of cases in which Israeli citizens are recruited by hostile actors through social media and Telegram.
Despite the seriousness of the offenses, the judges took into account that Cohen was a young man with no prior criminal record who expressed remorse and acted from financial rather than ideological motives.
They also considered the fact that he refused to carry out an additional assignment in the Eilat Port area after realizing its severity.
Ultimately, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, retroactive to the date of his arrest on May 27, 2025, along with three years of probation.
"I regret everything I did. I was wrong, and this is the biggest mistake I made in my life," Cohen told Walla before the first hearing in his case, when the indictment was filed.