Iranian courts have sentenced one person to death for spying for the CIA and jailed two others for 10 years for the same crime, as well as imprisoning a fourth person for 10 years for spying for Britain, a judiciary spokesman claimed on Oct. 1.
The verdicts come amid spiraling tensions between Tehran and the United States since President Donald Trump last year withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy in order to force Tehran to renegotiate the pact.
“One person has been sentenced to death for spying for America’s intelligence service … but the ruling has been appealed,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted as saying by the judiciary’s news website Mizan.
The other two men, identified as Ali Nefriyeh and Mohammad Ali Babapour, received final 10-year sentences for spying for the CIA, and were ordered to repay $55,000 they had received, he said.
Mohammad Amin-Nasab was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for British intelligence, Esmaili said.
It was not immediately clear if any of the cases were linked to Iran’s announcement in July that it claimed to have captured 17 spies working for the CIA.
Trump: Iran Lied About Capturing CIA Spies
Trump dismissed Iran’s claim on July 22 that it had allegedly captured spies working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), saying that the regime was spreading “more lies and propaganda.”
“The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!”
The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2019
Iran announced earlier on July 22 that it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA and sentenced some of them to death, according to Iranian reports. This follows a June announcement where Iran said it had broken up an alleged CIA spy ring.
Iranian state television published images it said allegedly showed CIA officers who had been in touch with the suspected spies. The Ministry of Intelligence said the spies had been arrested in the 12 months to March 2019.
“The identified spies were employed in sensitive and vital private sector centers in the economic, nuclear, infrastructure, military and cyber areas … where they collected classified information,” read a ministry statement.
An Iranian television documentary aired on July 22 purported to show a CIA officer recruiting an Iranian man in the United Arab Emirates. The woman spoke Persian with an accent which appeared to be American.
Trump’s reaction to the report echoed comments Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made earlier on July 22 to Fox & Friends. Pompeo did not specifically comment on the report about the alleged arrests but said the Islamic regime “has a long history of lying.”
“I can’t add much to it specifically,” Pompeo told the program. “I would urge everyone who’s reading that story that the Iranian regime has a long history of lying.”
“They lied about where they shot down the American UAV, they now lied about where they took down this tanker. It’s part of the nature of the Ayatollah to lie to the world,” he added, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “I would take with a significant grain of salt any Iranian assertion of Iranian actions taken.”
Petr Svab, Jack Phillips, Mimi Nguyen-Ly and Janita Kan contributed to this report.
