Iran on Sunday put to death four people accused of working with Israel’sintelligence service, the judiciary said.
“This morning, the sentences of four main members of the gang of mobstersrelated to the Zionist intelligence service were executed,” the judiciary’sMizan Online website reported.
Iran carried out the sentences four days after the Islamic republic’ssupreme court upheld the penalty of capital punishment for “theirintelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime (Israel) and kidnapping”,the Mizan Online said.
There was no recourse to appeal after Wednesday’s decision, it added.
Mizan identified the men as Hossein Ordoukhanzadeh, Shahin ImaniMahmoudabad, Milad Ashrafi Atbatan and Manouchehr Shahbandi Bojandi,without elaborating on their backgrounds.
Three other defendants were sentenced to between five and 10 years inprison for crimes against the country’s security, complicity in kidnappingand possession of weapons, the judiciary’s website said after the Wednesdayruling.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a years-long shadow war. The Islamicrepublic accuses Israel of carrying out sabotage attacks against itsnuclear sites and assassinations, including of scientists.
On May 22, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had arrestedmembers of “a network acting under the direction of the Israeliintelligence service”.
“These people committed theft, destruction of personal and public property,kidnapping and extortion of false confessions,” a Guards statement said atthe time.
In late July Iran reported additional arrests, of several people allegedlylinked to Israel’s Mossad. These included alleged members of a bannedKurdish rebel group that was planning to target “sensitive sites”.
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The executions come at a time of heightened tensions in Iran after morethan two months of protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
The 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on September 16 aftermorality police in Tehran arrested her for an alleged breach of the Islamicrepublic’s dress code for women.
More than 300 people have been killed in the unrest, including dozens ofsecurity force members, an Iranian general said on Monday.
Thousands have been arrested, among them around 40 foreigners.
Iran accuses the United States and its allies, including Britain, Israel,and Kurdish groups based outside the country, of fomenting the streetviolence which the government calls “riots”.
Iran’s judiciary has already confirmed six death sentences over theprotests, and rights group Amnesty International says that, based onofficial reports, at least 21 people currently on trial are charged withcrimes that could see them hanged.
Iran currently executes more people annually than any nation other thanChina, according to rights groups. -APP/AFP
