Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi was warned a few days ago to leave Cyprus because of an Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli businessmen on the island. Sagi wasn’t the specific target of the attack.
According to a report by the Philenews last week, police arrested a 38-year-old Azerbaijani man with a Russian passport in the capital Nicosia. He is said to have been hired by Iran to assassinate Israeli businessmen on the island.
The suspect was arrested shortly after crossing the Agios Dhometios checkpoint in Nicosia from the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island.
Officers reportedly pulled a gun, ammunition and a silencer from a car the suspect had rented. Police are now looking for possible accomplices, although they may have fled the country after the arrest or are in Northern Cyprus.
The Cypriot authorities were monitoring the movements of the suspect several days prior to his arrest.
Sources say the suspect entered the country via Larnaca International Airport earlier this month and rented a car that he parked near a suburb of the capital where his alleged targets live and work.
He then rented an electric scooter and crossed the border between the southern and northern parts of the city several times, trying to keep himself unobtrusive.
Sagi, 48, is the founder of the gambling software company Playtech and owner of Camden Market in London. According to Forbes, his personal wealth is estimated at $ 5 billion, with interests in real estate, software, payment processing, and digital display ads. On the ranking list of wealthiest people in Israel, he is in sixth place.