Iran sentences four people to death over charges of spying for Israel, Fars news agency reports

DUBAI (Reuters) – Four people were sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in northwestern Iran over charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday. 

Fars said three of the defendants – whose nationalities it did not give – were accused of helping Israel’s spy agency Mossad move equipment used in the 2020 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Fakhrizadeh was viewed by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian programme to develop nuclear weapons capability. The Islamic Republic has long denied any such ambition.

The Jewish Chronicle newspaper reported in February 2021, citing intelligence sources, that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a one-ton gun smuggled into Iran in pieces by Mossad agents, both Israeli and Iranian nationals.

Israel declined to comment at the time of his killing and on Wednesday an Israeli government spokesman said in response to the Fars report: “We never comment on such matters. There has been no change in our position.”

Fars said the fourth defendant sentenced to death was linked to another unspecified espionage case.