Iran executes man charged with spying for CIA

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran’s judiciary announced on Monday the execution of a death row prisoner accused of providing intelligence to the CIA and Israeli Mossad on the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria and the movements of its slain commander Qassem Soleimani.

Sayyid Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was detained prior to the assassination of Soleimani in early January at Baghdad International Airport, but authorities in Tehran maintain that Majd provided information about the movement of Iran’s elite Quds Force in Syria. The now-deceased prisoner's confession was aired on Iranian state TV.

Soleimani was killed by a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3. Commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, he was the central architect of Iran’s policy across the Middle East, leading the IRGC’s activities in the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

Tasnim News Agency, media close to Iran's IRGC, says that the execution of Majd is a decisive response to US President Donald’s Trump's recent tweet in calling for the halt to the execution of three Iranian protestors.

Iran is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, with 8,071 executions carried out from 2000 until 2019. Authorities regularly apply the death penalty to a host of offenses, including “enmity against god”, spying, repeated consumption of alcohol and more.

Human rights organizations have documented Iran’s consistent use of torture and other methods to extract forced confessions from prisoners.

Gholam Hossein Esmaili the judiciary spokesperson said on June 9 that Majd had been convicted of spying and his execution had been upheld by Branch 19 of the Supreme Court. Esmail warned at the time that Majd could be executed at any time.

The execution of Majd comes at a time that Iran is under relentless global pressure about the possible execution of three protesters from the November protest which provoked a worldwide campaign to stop their execution.

The lawyers for the three men said yesterday that their execution has been halted and their clients face a possible re-trial.

A central figure in the dispute between Iran and the United States prior to his assasination, Soleimani was on the US Department of State’s list of sanctioned terrorists since 2007.

The Quds force commander was largely considered the man that successfully propped up President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his war against Syrian opposition. Under Soleimani's leadership, thousands of Shiite militia fighters from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran went to Syria to back Assad.

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