Iran says it has executed Iranian agent linked to CIA

Iran has executed a former employee of the defense ministry who was convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, the country's judiciary said Tuesday. It was the second such execution in the past month. In the last years of his service, he joined the CIA, he sold information about our missiles ... to the CIA and took money from them," the judiciary spokesman said.

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Published Date: 05:02 | 14 July 2020
Modified Date: 05:02 | 14 July 2020

Iran has executed a former defence ministry worker who sold information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Iranian judiciary said on Tuesday.

Reza Asgari had linked up with the CIA during his last years serving at the defence ministry and sold the agency information about Iran's missile programme, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said, quoted by its Mizan website.

He retired from the ministry four years ago. Esmaili said Asgari was executed last week.

Separately, Esmaili said a death sentence for Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, an Iranian accused of spying for U.S. and Israeli intelligence, is among those still to be carried out. Last year, Iran announced it had captured 17 spies it said were working for the CIA.

Occasionally Iran announces arrests and convictions of alleged spies for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel.

In June, Iran said another alleged spy, Jalal Hajizavar, was hanged in a prison near Tehran. The report said Hajizavar — also a former staffer of the defense ministry — had admitted in court that he was paid to spy for the CIA. The report said authorities had also confiscated espionage equipment from his residence. It said the court sentenced Hajizavar's wife to 15 years in prison for her role in the espionage.

Before that, in 2016, Iran executed a nuclear scientist convicted of spying for the United States.

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