Iran Executes Spy Working for CIA and Mossad

JAKARTA - Iranian authorities have executed a man accused of spying for the US and Israeli intelligence agencies, state media IRNA reported.

A man named Erfan Shakourzadeh was executed for cooperating with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

Shakourzadeh was recruited as a project worker, given his expertise, by one of the country's scientific organizations active in the field of satellites, according to an announcement from Iran's Judiciary on Monday, as reported by IRNA (11/5).

While working, Shakourzadeh began contact with the enemy intelligence services, including the CIA and especially the Mossad. The information that the convict tried to give to the enemy was confidential.

In the initial stage, after filling out a cooperation form with Mossad, Shakourzadeh exchanged information with the service via email - initial information such as personal and family details, workplace, type of access, mission, and his duties at his workplace.

After some time, someone contacted Shakourzadeh again via LinkedIn, claiming to be an Iranian living in Canada who had seen his resume.

This person, who was actually a Mossad agent, offered Shakourzadeh the opportunity to participate in dollar-based projects abroad. After making contact with the Mossad, Shakourzadeh then tried to contact the CIA.

According to documents found among the convicted individual's email exchanges with CIA agents, he asked them to help him obtain a US visa and the opportunity to study in the Uncle Sam's country.

Meanwhile, launching Al Arabiya from AFP, Shakourzadeh was mentioned as a graduate student from the elite university of Tehran. Shakourzadeh (29) was hanged after being found guilty.

The Norwegian-based human rights group, Iran Human Rights and Hengaw (IHR), said Shakourzadeh was a student at the prestigious Iranian University of Science and Technology and had written a message before his execution rejecting the charges as a fabrication.

Describing Shakourzadeh as an "elite student," IHR said he was detained "in isolation and tortured and forced to make false confessions."

He is the fifth person to be executed on espionage charges since the start of the war in late February.

Authorities have also executed 13 men convicted over January's protests, another over a 2022 demonstration, and 10 people accused of having links to a banned opposition group, according to IHR.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran of using the death penalty as a tool to spread fear in society during times of international and domestic tensions.

Hengaw said Shakourzadeh, who was arrested in February 2025, was executed at dawn at Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran after being suddenly transferred from Evin prison in the capital earlier this month.

After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from Tabriz University, "he was an accomplished master student in aerospace engineering at the Iranian University of Science and Technology," said Hengaw.

He was "subject to severe physical and psychological torture for nine months in isolation to obtain a forced confession" after his arrest, he said.

In a message published by Hengaw and IHR, Shakourzadeh said the accusations were "baseless" and he had been "forced to make a false confession" due to torture.

"Don't let other innocent lives disappear in silence and without public attention," he said.

Iran is the country that carries out the most executions in the world after China, according to human rights groups. Last year, Iran hanged at least 1,639 people, according to figures from IHR, which has recorded at least 190 executions so far in 2026.