Iran Executes Four Accused of Being Linked to Israel's Spy Agency

Four men convicted of having links to Israel's national intelligence agency have been executed, according to state media in Iran.

The group had been convicted of planning to sabotage a defense ministry facility in the city of Isfahan in 2022 in an operation allegedly organized by Mossad, Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, according to the Associated Press.

The execution of the Iranian nationals, named as Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Vafa Azarbar and Pejman Fatehi, followed their death sentences handed down in September 2023 being upheld. The method of execution was not listed but in Iran it is usually by hanging, the AP reported.

Advocacy group Iran Human Rights said the four men were Kurdish political prisoners who had been arrested in the city of Urmia on June 22, 2021, and subsequently sentenced to death by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

The group said that during their detention the four men were not allowed to meet with their families or lawyers, and that the only visit they were permitted was the day before their execution.

Mazloum's wife, Joanna Taimasi told Iran Human Rights that they had heard nothing since the arrests of the men and that the group had traveled to Urmia "unarmed and on behalf of the Komala party for political activities where they were arrested."

She added that they had been tortured into making forced confessions in which they said they were Mossad agents and Israeli spies, and had planned to blow up an industrial center in Isfahan.

When contacted for comment, Iran Human Rights Group referred Newsweek to a statement by its group director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam on Monday that the convictions were based on confessions under torture and without a fair trial.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "and the corrupt judiciary of the Islamic Republic must be held accountable for these murders," he added.

"The least reaction of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the executions should be the cancellation of Nada Al-Nashif's deputy commissioner's trip to Iran," Amiry-Moghaddam said, referring to a scheduled visit by the envoy on February 2.

Marta Hurtado, spokesperson of the UN Human Rights Office, told Newsweek in a statement on Tuesday: "The human rights situation in Iran is dire, and it is therefore important to seek ways to have conversations about these concerns.

"We need to try to see whether there are any opportunities to improve the human rights situation in Iran. That is the purpose of the Deputy High Commissioner's visit."

People took to social media to express anger at the executions.

"Heartbroken and outraged to wake up to the news of the execution of four young Kurdish men by the Iran regime," Sangar Khaleel a Kurdish fixer based in Erbil, Iraq, posed on X. "Iran must stop the killing of the Kurds."

"The only reason why we Kurds get killed because we refuse to be part of their systematic oppression," posted the blogger PêL.

Last month, Tehran executed three men and a woman and jailed several others following convictions for links with Mossad, the AP said.

Newsweek has contacted the Iranian foreign ministry and the UNHCR for comment.

Update 1/29/24, 7:25 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Iran Human Rights and further information.

Update 01/30/24 12:37 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Marta Hurtado.