Iran executed a man whom its courts convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad, state media reported Wednesday.
The execution came as tensions have risen between the two countries, which exchanged renewed threats of violence in recent weeks, roughly six months after fighting a 12-day war. It also happened as protests against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime took place across Iran.
The official IRNA news agency identified the executed man as Ali Ardestani, and claimed he relayed sensitive information to the Israeli spy agency’s officers in return for financial rewards in the form of cryptocurrencies.
The report said the man confessed to the spying charges, and that he had hoped to receive a million-dollar reward, as well as a British visa. It labeled Ardestani a “special operative force of Israel” and claimed he gave images and footage of “special places” to Mossad agents.
IRNA did not elaborate about the time and place of his detention.
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The report said Israel recruited Ardestani online, adding that his case went through legal procedures, both in primary courts and the country’s Supreme Court.
Demonstrators hang an effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the funeral for seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in a strike in Syria, which Iran blamed on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, on April 5, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Human rights organizations and Western governments have condemned Iran’s increasing use of capital punishment, particularly for political and espionage-related offenses.
Activists argue that many of the convictions rely on coerced confessions, and that trials often take place behind closed doors, without access to independent legal representation. Tehran, however, maintains that those executed were “agents of hostile intelligence services” involved in acts of terrorism or sabotage.
Iran executed at least 1,500 people in 2025, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group says, in what it calls an “unprecedented” hike in the use of capital punishment.
“It is unprecedented in the last 35 years. As long as Iran Human Rights has existed, we have never had such numbers,” the group’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, says.
Tehran is known to have executed 12 people for espionage since the 12-day air war between Israel and Iran, killing nearly 1,100 people in the Islamic Republic, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Iranians walk by an anti-US mural on a street in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on January 6, 2026. (ATTA KENARE/ AFP)
Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the country from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.
Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 32 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.
Iranian officials have additionally accused Israel of orchestrating a campaign of covert attacks inside Iran, including assassinations of nuclear scientists and cyber-sabotage of strategic facilities.
Israeli officials say Iran has engaged in extensive efforts to recruit spies in Israel, offering cash rewards. Hackers affiliated with Iran have also claimed to have hacked into the phones of current and former Israeli officials, including former premier Naftali Bennett and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff.
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