Iran Executes Man Convicted of Espionage for Israel

Iranian authorities on Tuesday executed a man after convicting him of cooperation with and espionage for Israel's Mossad spy agency, the judiciary said. "Gholamreza Khani Shakarab was executed on charges of intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the Zionist regime," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported, adding that his sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Mizan described Shakarab as one of the operational ringleaders of Mossad abroad who was seeking to recruit individuals inside the country for anti-security actions. The report said he was guided into the country through a complex operation using intelligence deception tactics and was arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence forces.

The report also said Shakarab had been tasked by Mossad to travel to one of the regional countries with the aim of identifying and preparing the groundwork for the assassination of a Jewish rabbi to accuse Iran of anti-Jewish actions. It was not immediately clear when Shakarab was arrested or sentenced.

"Finally, after reviewing the case and after legal proceedings and confirmation of the sentence in the Supreme Court, the accused was executed by hanging this morning," the report added.

Monday, Iran executed another man after convicting him of carrying out armed attacks during the nationwide anti-government protests that peaked in January. S. and Israel. Iran carries out the second-highest number of executions in the world after China, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

A doubling of Iranian executions contributed to the world reaching a high for death penalties in 2025 not seen since 1981, an Amnesty report published earlier this month found. Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty said last month in their joint annual report on the death penalty in Iran that at least 1,639 people were executed in 2025, including 48 women.