Iran executed four spies for their alleged participation in a bombing conspiracy on Monday, January 29. The operation was targeted towards a military equipment factory in Isfahan. The country claims that the four convicts were associated with Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence agency.
Mizan Online reported, “The death sentence of four members of a group affiliated with the Zionist spy organization … was carried out this morning,”.
The operation was set to unveil in the summer of 2022, aimed at bombing the Isfahan factory which produces equipment for the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics. The men identified as Mohammad Faramarzi, Vafa Azarbar, Pejman Fatehi and Mohsen Mazloumhad had infiltrated Iranian territories by entering through the Kurdish region in Iraq. They were arrested by authorities in mid-2022, and given a death sentence in September of last year.
Israel and Iran have a history of being at loggerheads partly due to Iran’s nuclear program. The ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict which gained new heights on October 7, 2023, has further complicated the situation. Iran is also known for backing various militant organizations including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
Latest confrontations between Iran and Israel and the US and the UK who are actively backing the latter, has raised concerns about the region’s future.
Iran’s Series of Executions Raises Humanitarian Concerns
The country, which has one of the highest rates of executions in the world, has stirred a debate about the potential human rights violations.
Iran Human Rights has reported a total of 67 executions since the start of 2024, including a 23-year-old who was executed last week because of participating in a 2022 protest in support of Mahsa Amini who died in police custody following an arrest by the country’s morality police. The human rights organization has also claimed that the four men executed by the state on Monday, were Kurdish political prisoners who were deprived of a fair judicial trial. The wife of one of the men also alleged that the four convicts were “tortured” into admitting their associations with Israel, as per Time.
Another four, including a woman and three men were executed in December of last year for their involvement with the Israeli espionage agency and were convicted of arson and kidnapping of security personnel. A similar number of people were executed in December 2022 for their links with Mossad.
