Iran sentences one person to death for spying for the US

Iranian courts have sentenced one person to death for spying for the United States and jailed two others for 10 years for the same crime, a judiciary spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Esmaili said that the individual has appealed the sentence and a final decision will be made by the appeals court. He didn’t provide further details on the suspect or the case.

A fourth person has been imprisoned for 10 years for spying for Britain.

Esmaili also said the appeals court issued final decisions on two Iranians, identified as Ali Nafarieh and Mohammad Ali Babapour, sentencing them to 10 years imprisonment on charges of spying for the US.

Earlier in July, Iranian authorities announced that security agencies had arrested 17 suspects and sentenced some of them to death after dismantling a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spy ring.

The agencies “successfully dismantled a [CIA] spy network on July 18,” the head of counter-intelligence at the Iranian intelligence ministry, whose identity was not revealed, had told reporters in Tehran.

“Some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment.”