Four Iranians on Wednesday were sentenced to death for allegedly cooperating with Israel’s Mossad spy agency, according to a Reuters report citing Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency.
Those accused were punished “for the crime of cooperating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping,” said the report.
“With guidance from the Zionist intelligence service, this network of thugs was stealing and destroying private and public property, kidnapping people, and obtaining fake confessions,” it added.
In October, Tehran announced it had arrested 10 persons accused of working for Israel, Reuters reported at the time.
Also last month, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel and the United States of orchestrating the protests taking place throughout the country.
Khamenei strongly backed the regime’s security forces, which are repressing the demonstrations, and claimed that the unrest, sparked by the death on Sept. 16 of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police, was not being caused by “ordinary Iranians.”
Iranian police together with the Basij security forces have killed more than 400 Iranians and arrested thousands of others, according to rights groups.