Overview

• Mizan, the judiciary’s news agency, said the man was hanged Saturday in Qom after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict and a pardon request was denied.
• Judicial reports said he began contacting Israeli intelligence in October 2023, was arrested in February 2024, and confessed to cooperating with Mossad and transmitting sensitive information online.
• The individual was not publicly identified and was convicted on charges that included intelligence cooperation with Israel, “corruption on Earth,” and “enmity against God,” which carry the death penalty under Iranian law.
• The case is the latest in a string of at least nine executions for alleged espionage since June, including six men executed on October 4 in Khuzestan and Bahman Choobiasl on September 29.
• Human rights groups and Western governments criticize the surge in capital cases as reliant on closed proceedings and coerced confessions, while Iranian authorities defend the executions as necessary for national security.