By Deutsche Welle
Iranian authorities executed 29-year-old activist Erfan Shakourzadehwhom Tehran accused of acting as a spy in the service of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Israeli counterpart, Mossad, according to Iranian media.
The Tasnim agency, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, indicated that The young man was hanged for “maintaining extensive communications with the enemy to sell scientific information about the country”in the midst of tensions between Tehran with Washington and the Jewish State.
A graduate student of Aerospace Engineering
The human rights group Iran Human Rights had warned on Sunday of the possible execution of Shakourzadeh, whom he grunted as a graduate student of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Science and Technology of Iran.
The Iranian regime, for its part, alleges that the young man “was recruited for a project” related to satellites and disclosed classified information to the Israeli secret services and the CIA.
“In the early stages of communication, after completing a cooperation form with Mossad, Erfan Shakourzadeh exchanged information via email; initial information such as personal and family data, place of work, types of access, missions and organizational functions performed,” Tasnim added.
The information was shared by ISNA, another agency controlled by Tehran.
21 executed and more than 4,000 detained
The news of the execution is announced hours after US President Donald Trump considered “totally unacceptable” Iran’s response to the United States peace proposal, which seems to once again distance the possibility of an agreement to end the war.
Iran has accelerated executions since the start of the war with Israel and the United States on February 28especially of prisoners convicted for their alleged ties to Israel or protesters who participated in the January protests.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 21 people have been executed and more than 4,000 detained in Iran for political or national security reasons since the outbreak of the war.
Iran is one of the countries with the highest number of executions in the world and in 2025 it hanged 1,639 people, 68% more than the previous year, the highest number since 1989, according to the annual report of the NGOs Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Ensemble contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM).
