Stern was convicted after a full evidentiary hearing into contacts with foreign agents and conspiracy to threaten, after the court rejected Stern’s claim that he lacked the requisite mens rea.
Elimelech Stern was sentenced to three years in prison by the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday after it found him in contact with an Iranian intelligence operative and conspiring to issue threats.
Stern was convicted after a full evidentiary hearing in a case that the court described as part of a wider, intensified campaign by Iran to recruit Israeli citizens during the war.
This came after the court rejected Stern’s claims that he had no criminal intent.
While Stern acknowledged the factual conduct described in the indictment, he argued that he was not certain that the individual operating under the alias “Anna Elena” was acting on behalf of a hostile foreign nation.
The court rejected that argument, ruling that Stern at least suspected Anna of acting on behalf of a foreign country and its intelligence services but chose to ignore those suspicions.
“He preferred to turn a blind eye,” Judge Chana Miriam Lomp wrote. “He did not sever ties and did not conduct an investigation that might have removed suspicion.”
Elimelech Stern, indicted for contact with foreign agents, has a court hearing on February 5, 2026, at the Jerusalem District Court. (Image credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Stern uses two Israelis as agents
According to the indictment, Stern maintained continuous contact with Anna through Telegram from June 2, 2024 to June 27, 2024. During this time, he completed a series of tasks under her guidance in exchange for cryptocurrency payments. To carry out these missions, Stern hired two other Israeli citizens who performed missions on his behalf and acted as his agents.
The court found that all of Stern’s tasks were security-related and had a violent, nationalist political character. While some of the more difficult missions were ultimately not performed due to operational difficulties, the court ruled that Stern was willing to perform them and only abandoned them because he was unable to perform them.
Despite suspicions that Anna was a foreign agent and despite knowledge that contact with the person could endanger national security, Stern continued to have contact with her and agreed to serve as a conduit for various missions, the ruling said.
Although the relationship only lasted about a month, the court described it as routine, intensive and involving a large number of tasks relative to the time frame.
To determine the damage caused, the court adopted a security assessment submitted by prosecutors that warned of a sharp increase in recruitment of Israelis by Iranian intelligence services since the outbreak of the war in 2023.
The assessment describes Iran’s recruitment campaign as targeting various sectors of Israeli society with the aim of gathering intelligence, exerting influence and espionage preparations for future conflicts.
The court accepted the assessment that Stern’s conduct contributed to the establishment of Iranian-operated networks within Israel and the dissemination of threatening information to civilians.
Lump highlighted the timing of the crimes, noting that Stern’s contacts with Iranian agents occurred during wartime and after Iran’s April 2024 missile attack on Israel — an attack that, in the words of the court, “made clear to any reasonable person the intent of Iran’s intentions toward Israel.”
The court found that Stern caused serious harm to protected national interests by assisting the Islamic Republic during this period and effectively acted as “Iran’s long arm” within Israel.
At the time of the crime, Stern was 22 years old, married and the father of two young children, with no previous criminal record. He lived with his family in a rented apartment in Beit Shemesh, studied at a yeshiva and worked as a religious scribe. He grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Wiznitz family.
The court noted that Stern’s actions were motivated by economic motives rather than ideological identification with Iran, but accepted the prosecution’s position that there was no significant difference in the severity of the damage caused by economic cooperation and ideological cooperation with a hostile country.
After setting a sentencing range of one to three years in prison, the court sentenced the upper end of the range: three years in prison, probation and a fine of NIS 10,000.
In handing down the sentence, prosecutors noted that Stern was the first defendant to be convicted and sentenced after October 7 in the current wave of cases involving contacts with Iranian intelligence agents, underscoring the court’s view that deterrence is of special importance in the current security environment.
Police said some 40 such indictments had been filed since October 7, involving about 70 people.
Late Thursday, police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) announced that two Jerusalem residents had been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and receiving payment for sharing information.
The two were arrested in January following an investigation by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet, which they suspected of “committing serious security crimes”. The investigation found that the suspects “had contact with Iranian intelligence services and performed various missions with the understanding that they were acting at the direction of Iran.”
In exchange for alleged espionage, funds were transferred to the pair’s digital wallets.
