Iran Executes Aerospace Engineer Convicted of Spying for CIA and Mossad

Iran executed Erfan Shakourzadeh, a 29-year-old aerospace engineer born in 1996, on Monday 11 May 2026 on espionage charges. The execution took place days after human rights organisations warned of its imminence and published a note he had written from prison.

Shakourzadeh studied electrical engineering at the University of Tabriz before graduating first in his class in the master's programme in Aerospace Engineering and Satellite Technology at Iran University of Science and Technology.

He was working at a scientific organisation specialising in satellites when IRGC intelligence detained him in February 2025. Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran's judiciary, described Erfan Shakourzadeh as a joint CIA and Mossad spy. It stated that he had been recruited as a project due to his expertise, attempted to contact Mossad and the CIA in three stages, and passed classified information to foreign intelligence services.

No details of the evidence against Erfan Shakourzadeh or the legal proceedings were made public before his execution. Euronews reported that human rights organisations had previously raised concerns over the lack of transparency. In a note smuggled out of prison, Shakourzadeh denied the charges.

"I am Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, one of the few so-called elites who refused to emigrate," he wrote. He stated in the note that he was detained by IRGC intelligence a few months before the 12-day conflict on trumped-up charges of espionage and collaboration with enemy countries.

"I was forced to make a confession during eight and a half months of torture and solitary confinement," the note continued.

Human rights organisations reported he was transferred on Friday 8 May 2026 to Qezel Hesar prison in the central Iranian city of Karaj ahead of his execution. He had previously been held at the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran following his arrest. Euronews reported that his execution brings to nearly 30 the number of people hanged by Iran in recent weeks on charges related to alleged political activity, security offences and the January protests.

Erfan Shakourzadeh is the fifth person executed on espionage charges since the beginning of the war in late February 2026, according to IHR. Iran has executed 13 men charged over January protests since the beginning of the war.