Reports indicate Iranian authorities have executed four people and handed three others jail sentences for allegedly working with Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad.
The four identified as Hossein Ordoukhanzadeh, Shahin Imani Mahmoudabad, Milad Ashrafi Atbatan, and Manouchehr Shahbandi Bojandi were hanged early today, according to the official news website of the judiciary.
Iran and Israel have had sustained frosty relations including direct military confrontations that have shifted the global geopolitics.
Israel has always maintained her hardline stand against Iran’s alleged procurement of nuclear weapon technology.
Though Iran always denied Israel’s allegations from different domestic as well as international platforms, Israel has always maintained its position against Tehran.
The judiciary called them “thugs” and said they were guided by Israeli intelligence when they engaged in destroying public and private property, theft, kidnappings, and obtaining fake confessions. They received their instructions from a Mossad operative based in Sweden, it said.
According to the judiciary, all the individuals had a history of crimes, with Ordoukhanzadeh – the alleged main link with Mossad – having been imprisoned in Greece between 2014 and 2017 for attempting to traffic humans from Turkey to Greece.
They allegedly received payment in the form of cryptocurrencies and bought weapons and equipment while receiving training on how to destroy evidence, evade security cameras, and swap vehicles, something the Iranian judiciary said underlines Mossad’s role.
Their cases were referred to the Supreme Court, which confirmed the sentences carried out today.
The Iranian Judiciary delivered the verdicts on Wednesday last week.
