Iran Puts to Death Four Men Found Guilty of Spying for Israel’s Enemy

Iran hanged four men before daybreak on Monday, the court said, after they were found guilty of working with Israel, the nation’s worst enemy, to damage an Iranian military facility.

According to the judiciary’s Mizan Online website, the four defendants—Mohammad Faramarzi, Mohsen Mazloum, Wafa Azarbar, and Pejman Fatehi—were detained in July 2022 and charged with preparing to launch an operation against a Ministry of Defense center in the central province of Isfahan.

“This morning, four members of a gang linked with the Zionist espionage organization who were detained… for planning an Isfahan bombing operation were given the death penalty,” according to a post on Mizan Online.

Iran said that the individuals had been enlisted “about a year and a half before the operation” by Israel’s spy agency, Mossad. The court also said that they were transported to African nations for “training courses in the military centers” where Mossad officials were present. In September 2023, the men received a death sentence.

Iran said in August 2023 that it had thwarted a “very complex” scheme that Mossad had started to “sabotage” its ballistic missile development. A few months before, in February, Teheran blamed Israel for a drone strike on an Isfahan military installation. Iran often accuses Israel and its ally the United States of instigating unrest in the two nations’ decades-long shadow war.