Iran's judiciary has executed two of its citizens by hanging on charges of conducting espionage activities after being recruited by Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency.
The Iranian judiciary announced Tuesday, local time, that the death sentences of Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bekrzadeh were carried out that morning. Both were Iranian nationals, and the executions took place in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.
According to Mizan, the judiciary's news agency, Karimpour was in active contact with Mossad during the "12-Day War" between Iran and Israel that broke out in June last year. He was confirmed to have handed over information about the locations of security facilities inside Iran and details about key figures to Mossad in exchange for cryptocurrency. He was also trained by a Mossad agent in the manufacture of stun grenades and detonated several of them in designated areas. He photographed and leaked images of military bases and facilities, and carried out sabotage operations that included setting fire to ATMs in areas such as Karaj and Mashhad.
Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced Karimpour to death by applying moharebeh (waging war against God), a serious crime under Iranian criminal law.
Bekrzadeh was charged with leaking photographs of the Natanz uranium enrichment complex to Mossad. He also provided information on Islamic jurists and officials, Mizan reported.
The Iranian judiciary also carried out a series of hangings from November 20 to 24 against defendants whose death sentences had been finalized for espionage activities after being recruited by Mossad. Iran appears to be tightening its internal controls by repeatedly imposing the harshest punishments in espionage cases linked to Mossad.
