According to the state news agency IRNA, four people have been executed in Iran for alleged spying for Israel. They would have been members of a network of the Israeli secret service Mossad, IRNA reported today. The four people allegedly damaged public property and were involved in kidnappings. There were no further details, not even if there was a connection to the ongoing system-critical protests.
The Islamic Republic has long accused its enemy Israel of carrying out covert operations on its soil. Tehran recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence agencies of plotting a civil war in Iran, which is currently gripped by the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
On Wednesday, the semi-official MEHR news agency reported that the four men had been sentenced to death “for the crime of collaborating with the secret services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”. Three other people were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison after being charged with charges including violating national security, complicity in kidnapping and illegally carrying weapons, sources said.