Iran announces first spy execution since war with Israel, US began

2026.03.18 10:20 Members of Iran’s Red Crescent rescue team pull a doll from the rubble of a building that was damaged by a strike in Tehran on Tuesday. Photo: WANA/Reuters Iranian authorities executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, the judiciary said on Wednesday, in the first such execution announced since the war with Israel and the United States broke out. “The death sentence of a spy for the Zionist regime, who had been providing images and information about the country’s sensitive locations to Mossad officers, was carried out this morning,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. Mizan identified the man as Kouroush Keyvani and said he was arrested during Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last June. The United States briefly joined with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. It listed details of his meetings with agents from Israel’s Mossad spy agency and said he received training in “six European countries and in Tel Aviv”. A video grab taken from social media on Tuesday shows a vehicle from Iran’s special police unit ablaze in Tehran’s Enqelab Square. Photo: UGC/AFP Tehran has detained numerous people suspected of spying for Israel since the war in June. Unconfirmed reports suggest more than 10 have been executed. Human rights groups have long criticised Iran, one of the world’s top executioners, for its heavy use of the death penalty, saying it is often employed to suppress dissent. They warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions. Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained. Those accused of spying are usually tried in closed-door hearings where they cannot fully contest the cases against them. According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 people were executed in the country last year. In the aftermath of Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, international rights groups estimate as many as 5,000 peopl

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