July 20 (UPI) — Tehran on Monday executed an Iranian man convicted of spying for the United States and Israel, according to state-run media.
Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was executed after being sentenced to death by an Iranian court for informing the United States of the movements and location of Qassem Soleimani, the slain commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the Quds Force, Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili said, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency.
Soleimani was assassinated by the United States in a drone strike in early January at the direction of President Donald Trump, who held the Quds Force responsible for inciting protesters to attack the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad amid rising tensions between the adversarial countries.
Iran has said that Majd was connected to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence-gathering organization.
The press office of the Iranian judiciary said Majd’s execution was not connected to Soleimani’s death as he had been arrested four months prior to the drone strike.
It was the third execution of an accused CIA agent in the past two months after the Iranian government executed two defense ministry employees suspected of spying for the United States earlier in July and in June.
Reza Asgari, a retired employee of the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organisation, was hanged earlier this month by Tehran for conspiring with the CIA and selling it information about Iranian missiles when he still worked at the agency.
In June, Iran hanged Jalal Hajizavar, whom Tehran also accused of spying for the United States.
The execution of Majd came hours after Iran’s supreme court suspended the executions of three men connected to nationwide protests in November following international backlash.
Amirhossein Moradi, 26, Mohammad Rajabi, 28, and Saeed Tamjidi, 26, were convicted earlier this year on charges of sabotage, armed robbery and illegally leaving the country during the protests that erupted in Iran over a substantial gas price hike.
Babak Pakina, a lawyer for one of the men, told reporters the supreme court had accepted their request for a retrial.
Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner said the three men confessed under torture, and condemned their death sentences.
Trump also tweeted condemnation of the anticipated execution of the three men, writing in Farsi that it will send “a deplorable message to the world and should not be done.”
