The former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief and Yesh Atid member Yaakov Peri was allegedly involved in the case of the kidnapping of a German millionaire’s children in Denmark, the Bild reported on Saturday.
Christina Block, the heiress of the Block House steakhouse franchise, is accused of hiring an Israeli intelligence firm called Cyber Cupula Operations to retrieve her children, then 13-year-old Clara and 10-year-old Theodor, after their father, Stephan Hensel, kept them with him in Denmark in violation of a court order.
The children were reportedly supposed to return to their mother in Hamburg after a weekend visit with their father, the report said.
Seven million euros paid to carry out kidnapping?
According to the Bild, Peri’s mission was to assemble a team of kidnappers, which consisted of eight people, most of them Israelis with a security background. Peri was reportedly contacted by August Hanning, the former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, in order to do so.
Hanning told the Bild that not only was he never in contact with Peri, but he was also unaware of reports that seven million euros were paid to the group.
These surfacing accounts regarding Peri’s involvement arrive nearly two months after it was reported that three alleged former Mossad agents had been connected with the custody battle between Block and her ex-husband, Hensel.
Case in point, a former Mossad agent, Tal Sasson, has reportedly been indicted, and prosecutors are seeking the arrest of Israeli nationals David Ram Barkai and Keren Tenenbaum. The latter fled Germany.
Per reports in July, Block’s and Hensel’s two children were ambushed, likely by Cyber Cupula Operations, at a fireworks show in southern Denmark. The operatives reportedly knocked Hensel down and dragged the children into a forest and then into a car.
If Block is found guilty, which she argues she is not, she stands to serve up to 10 years in prison. Her partner, sports broadcaster Gerhard Delling, is accused of aiding and abetting her.
Peri headed the Shin Bet between 1988 and 1995, and he was active in the Knesset from 2013 to 2018.
Walla contributed to this report.