Person convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad executed in southeastern Iran

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – A person convicted of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was executed in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province on Saturday.

In a report, Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the Iranian judiciary, said the person was charged with connections with foreign spy agencies, including Mossad, without revealing his identity.

According to the report, the person “knowingly collected classified information while communicating with foreign agencies” and provided those documents to agencies, including Israel’s Mossad.

He was charged with “intelligence cooperation and espionage for the benefit of the hostile Zionist regime (Israel), collecting classified information, and providing information to the Mossad spy agency officer directly with the aim of disrupting public order,” the report said.

Following his arrest, he was tried at a revolutionary court in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province, which sentenced him to death.

The country’s apex court later upheld the verdict. His plea for amnesty was also turned down.

The identity of the person and his nationality has not been made public. In the past, many Iranians and dual nationals have been executed, mostly on charges of spying for foreign agencies.

It came two days after a bank guard convicted for killing a senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani in April was executed in the northern city of Babolsar.

Soleimani, a former representative of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Sistan and Baluchistan, was shot dead at a bank in Babolsar in April.

- 11 police officers killed in police station attack

Incidentally, on Friday, 11 police officers were killed in a “terrorist” attack on a police station in Sistan and Baluchistan, officials said.

The attack on a police station in the city of Rask was carried out by a group of “terrorists” at around 2 a.m. local time (2230GMT on Thursday), the state media reported, citing officials.

According to police, at least two attackers were killed on the spot, one was injured and arrested, and a few others managed to flee.

The Jaish e Adl group, which has an active presence in the province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran’s judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei emphasized stringent punishment to the perpetrators of the attack, urging security agencies to “take all necessary measures to arrest and bring the terrorists associated with global arrogance to justice.”

The funeral of the slain police officers was held in the city of Rask on Saturday.

Sistan and Baluchistan has witnessed several attacks on security forces in recent years, which Iranian authorities have blamed on local terrorist groups.

In July, two police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in the provincial capital Zahedan, identified as Lt. Ali Kikha and Constable Rashidi.

Two months before that, a senior police officer identified as Col. Alireza Shahraki was killed in the Saravan county of the border province by unidentified assailants.

In September last year, amid protests in Iran, at least 19 people were killed in violence after a group of armed protesters stormed a police station in Zahedan.