Iran executes one of Israel's 'most important spies'

Iran accused Choobi-asl of meeting with officials from the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Mizan said Choobi-asl worked on "sensitive telecommunications projects" and reported about the "paths of importing electronic devices."

"The main goal of Mossad in attracting the defendant's co-operation was to obtain the database of governmental institutions and create a breach in Iranian data centres, along with which it also pursued other secondary goals, including investigating the route of importing electronic equipment," Mizan said.

The Iran-Israel conflict escalated into a direct war in June when Israel struck various targets inside Iran, including through operations that relied on Mossad commandos being deployed deep inside the country.

Iran is known to have hanged nine people for espionage since its June war with Israel. Israel waged an air war with Iran, killing some 1100 people, including many military commanders. Iran launched missile barrages targeting Israel in response.

Earlier this month, Iran executed Babak Shahbazi, who it alleged spied for Israel. Activists disputed that, saying Shahbazi was tortured into a false confession after writing a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offering to fight for Kyiv.

Iran has faced multiple nationwide protests in recent years, fuelled by anger over the economy, demands for women's rights and calls for the nation's theocracy to change.

In response to the protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1000, noting the number could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

with AP