HAIFA — Dimitri Cohen received a sentence of eight and a half years in prison from the Haifa District Court on Monday. Cohen, a 28-year-old resident of Haifa, was convicted of having contact with a foreign agent and seven additional offenses of attempting to provide information that could be used by Iran and its proxies during wartime.

Cohen was arrested on May 27, 2025, in a joint operation involving the Shin Bet and the Central Unit of Israel Police's Coastal District. He was found to have carried out tasks for a foreign agent who presented themselves as a private investigator.

According to an indictment filed by the Haifa District Attorney's Office, Cohen was seeking employment online in the spring of 2025. A man identifying himself as "David" approached him with an offer of $500 per task in cryptocurrency. "David" claimed to own a private investigation firm called "Jupiter," specializing in marital infidelity cases. "David" communicated with Cohen using phone numbers with Russian and Portuguese area codes, and spoke in Russian with a heavy Caucasian accent.

Cohen was instructed to purchase an operational phone and a SIM card for communication with the foreign agent. His initial tasks included observing and photographing private homes, the Baha'i Gardens, and Haifa Bay in Tirat Carmel. Later requests involved documenting major roads across Israel, including coastal roads, Highway 4, and the road alongside Highway 40 from Beersheba to Mitzpe Ramon. Cohen photographed the road from Kibbutz Samar to Eilat, the Port of Eilat, and ships in the Bay of Eilat. He also photographed directional signs, power lines, facilities, infrastructure along roads, and the Hadera power plant.

Cohen edited some of the videos he filmed, removing documentation of military bases and sensitive facilities after realizing the security value of the information. The court ruled that providing the information and photographs Cohen did include could have aided the enemy and posed an intelligence threat. Judges Erez Porat, Nitzan Silman, and Rivka Eisenberg presided over the case.

The court determined that Cohen suspected from the beginning that "David" was an agent acting for Iran, and this suspicion intensified as the missions became more security-related. The judges ruled that Cohen "turned a blind eye" to warning signs, which included the use of foreign phone numbers, unusual payments, warnings from friends and his partner, and his inability to locate the alleged employing firm. The sentencing decision noted that Cohen's offenses occurred while Israel was engaged in an active war with Iran and its proxies.

The judges considered several factors in their decision, including Cohen's lack of a prior criminal record and his expressed remorse. They also noted that Cohen acted from financial rather than ideological motives and refused to carry out an additional assignment in the Eilat Port area once he understood its severity. "I regret everything I did. I was wrong, and this is the biggest mistake I made in my life," Cohen said. His sentence is retroactive to his arrest date of May 27, 2025, and includes three years of probation.