Iran executed four men on Monday after they were convicted of planning sabotage and having alleged links with Israel’s Mossad secret service, state media reported.
According to the official IRNA news agency, the men were found guilty of planning to target a factory in 2022 belonging to Iran’s defense ministry, involved in missile and defense equipment in the central city of Isfahan. The operation was allegedly orchestrated by Mossad, with the four individuals trained by the Israeli agency in an African country before entering Iran.
The executed individuals were identified as Iranian nationals: Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Vafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fatehi. Their death sentences, handed down by a court in September, were upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.
While the report did not specify how the death sentences were carried out, in Iran, executions typically occur by hanging.
In 2022, Iran claimed its intelligence agents had dismantled a group linked to Mossad, purportedly planning terror operations inside Iran. The country periodically reports on arrests, trials, and executions of its nationals accused of spying for Mossad, Britain’s MI6, the CIA, and other Western intelligence services.
Last month, Iran reportedly executed four people — three men and a woman — and sentenced several others to prison for alleged links with Israel’s Mossad security service. In December, another man was executed for releasing classified information to Mossad.
Iran and Israel have long accused each other of spying and engaging in a shadow war. Israel regards Iran as its greatest threat and has frequently warned of military action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking such weapons and has vowed a robust response to any aggression.
In 2020, Iran executed a man convicted of leaking information to the United States and Israel about Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in January that year.
