Iran executes former American Defense staff for spying
Iranian police officers close the door of the court compound, before the trial of Intelligence Ministry agent Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, who is charged with the "semi-premeditated murder" of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian journalist of Iranian origin, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 17, 2004. Kazemi died on July 10, 2003, 17 days after she was detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during protests against the ruling Islamic establishment. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran has reportedly executed a former United States Defense Ministry employee convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to Iran’s Judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Esmaili, Reza Asgari had worked in the aerospace department of the ministry and retired in 2016.
“In the last years of his service, he joined the CIA. He sold information about our missiles … to the CIA and took money from them,” Esmaili said. “He was identified, tried and sentenced to death.”
The Judiciary spokesman added that the death sentence for Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, another Iranian accused of spying for US and Israeli intelligence, is among those still to be carried out.