Iran executes four with ties to Mossad

Iranian authorities say they executed four terrorists linked to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad on Monday morning.

The four men were sentenced to death for spying on behalf of Israel and “managing a terrorist group with the aim of disrupting the country’s security”.

The state news agency IRNA reported that the men were convicted of planning to attack a factory in Isfahan province that belongs to the country’s defense ministry and is involved in the production of missiles and defense equipment.

The men were arrested by security forces in mid-July 2022 – days before they were reportedly to carry out the operation – and the four had previously been trained by the Israelis in an African country before entering Iran.

The executed are all Iranian nationals and have been identified as Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Vafa Azarbar and Pejman Fatehi. They had already been sentenced to death in a separate trial in September, sentences that were recently upheld by the country’s Supreme Court.

It is not clear from the reports how the death sentences were carried out, although executions in Iran are usually carried out by hanging.

After China, Iran is the country with the most confirmed and official executions in the world each year. It should be noted, however, that executions in many countries are not published or included in official statistics, making it difficult to determine how many death sentences are actually carried out around the world.