Tel Aviv: An Israeli couple arrested in Turkey on espionage charges for taking pictures of President Tayyip Erdogan’s residence were “innocent”, claimed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The couple, who arrived in Turkey’s Istanbul as tourists, took photos of the Ottoman-era Dolmabahce Palace during a ferry tour, and parts of the building are used as the Istanbul office of Erdogan, Xinhua news agency quoted Israel’s state-owned Kan news TV as saying in a report.
Speaking at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Bennett said that he had spoken with the family of Mordy and Natali Oknin, the married Israeli couple detained by the Turkish police on Friday.
“They are two innocent civilians who have been mistakenly caught up in a complex situation,” he said.
“We are doing everything to resolve the issue,” the Prime Minister said, adding that his office, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and other Israeli officials had “dealt with this throughout the weekend”.
Bennett voiced his hope that the family of the couple would stay strong despite the difficulty.
On Friday, Lapid denied in a statement that the couple work for an “Israeli agency”.
