Iran sentences four men for spying for US and UK
Iran sentences four men for spying for US and UK
Iranian courts have sentenced one man to death for spying for the US and jailed two others for 10 years for the same crime, as well as imprisoning a fourth person for six years for spying for Britain, an Iranian judiciary spokesman has said.
“One person has been sentenced to death for spying for America … but the ruling has been appealed,” Gholamhossein Esmaili told the judiciary’s news website, Mizan, on Tuesday.
He also told the official Iranian TV channel: “A spy working for the Iranian defence ministry was sentenced to death on a charge of spying for the United States.”
The man sentenced to death was not identified. Iranian agencies said Ali Nafriyeh and Mohammad Ali Babapour had been sentenced for spying on behalf of the US, while Mohammad Ali Nasab was sentenced for spying for Britain.
The development marks another blow to European efforts to calm tensions between Iran and the US, which is pursuing a policy of maximum economic pressure against Tehran.
The UK claims that sentences handed down to numerous British Iranian dual nationals, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, amount to a form of state hostage-taking. She has been held on spying charges since 2016.
The UK held a behind-closed-doors session on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York last week to highlight the state of human rights in Iran.
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Read more at: The Guardian
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights