The Iranian judiciary announced on Tuesday the three people sentenced to death for allegedly spying for Israel and attempting to smuggle material into the country for the 2020 assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an action Tehran accused Tel Aviv of.
The three convicted spied “for the occupation regime (Israel)” with “the pretext of smuggling alcohol“, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a press conference.
Jahangir has further indicated that the three convicts, of whom he did not provide the names or the date of their conviction, “attempted to smuggle into the country material to assassinate Fakhrizadeh” in 2020.
Fakhrizadeh was shot to death with a firearm controlled by remote control in the Absard area of Tehran province, in an assassination that Iran described as “state terrorism” and of which it accused Israel of.
The scientist was considered by Western intelligence services to be the director of the alleged secret Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons and succumbed in the hospital from injuries sustained in the attack.
Convicted of murder
Authorities in Iran on Monday executed young Arvin Ghahremani, a 20-year-old Jewish Iranian convicted of murder, after the victim’s family initially agreed to a “diyya” (financial compensation), but changed their minds and demanded execution upon discovering his religion.
The convictions announced on Tuesday come amidst a new escalation of tension between Iran and Israel, which killed five Iranians in an attack a few days ago against Iran, which has vowed revenge and already bombed the Jewish state earlier this month with some 180 missiles.
The Israeli strike came weeks after Iran attacked Israel on Oct. 1 with some 180 missiles in response to the deaths of Ismael Haniya, leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militia-party Hezbollah.