Iran rejects pardon appeal, executes man accused as Israeli spy

Tehran [Iran], October 20 (ANI): Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency in the central city of Qom, the provincial judiciary chief said as per the country's official media.

Hojjatoleslam Kazem Mousavi chief justice of Qom province, was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency that the death sentence was carried out after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict and rejected a request for clemency.

The convicted spy had been found guilty of moharebeh (waging war against God) and corruption on earth, charges that carry the death penalty under Iranian law.

The man was hanged on Saturday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran.

According to the chief justice, the suspect began contacting Israeli intelligence in late 2023 and was arrested in January-February 2024 after transmitting classified information to Mossad through online channels.

The suspect, according to the IRNA report confessed to holding meetings with a Mossad officer and sharing confidential information.

According to a Times of Israel report, earlier this month, six men were executed in Khuzestan province for alleged terrorism, and less than a week before that a man described as one of Israel's top spies was hanged. Iran identified the executed man as Bahman Choobi-asl, whose case wasn't immediately known in Iranian media reports or to activists monitoring the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.

Another, named as Roozbeh Vadi, was also executed for allegedly passing information about a nuclear scientist killed during the conflict.

Iran is known to have hanged at least ten people for espionage since its June war with Israel.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said has vowed that those behind the killing of several Sunni tribal leaders in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan would be swiftly punished.

A report in IRNA stated that the country's security and military forces would deliver a "decisive response." (ANI)

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