Today, Monday, the Iranian authorities executed a person convicted of spying for America and Israel. While the authorities suspended the same punishment for 3 activists, the police arrested the organizers of the recent protests in the west of the country.
This morning, the Iranian authorities announced the execution of Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, after he was convicted of spying for the United States and Israel, including helping to locate General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a strike carried out by a US plane early this year near Baghdad International Airport.
The website "Mizan Online", which is linked to the judiciary, stated that "the judgment of Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was executed on Monday morning for espionage, to close the case of his betrayal of his country forever."
Earlier, judiciary spokesman Ghulam Hussein Ismaili said that Majd spied "on several security services, especially the armed forces, the Quds Force and the movements of the martyr Qassem Soleimani."
Majd was convicted of receiving large sums of money from both the CIA and the Israeli Mossad, according to Ismaili.
It is reported that Majd migrated to Syria with his family in the 1970s, and worked as a translator in English and Arabic at a company, according to "Mizan Online". With the outbreak of war in Syria, he chose to remain there, while his family fled.
The website reported that "his knowledge of the Arabic language and Syrian geography made him close to Iranian military advisers, as he assumed responsibilities in groups based from Idlib to Lattakia."
Soleimani was heading the Quds Force, which is charged with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s foreign operations, and was killed by a strike by a US drone plane near Baghdad airport in January.
Suspend and arrest
On the other hand, the Iranian judiciary suspended the execution of the death penalty against 3 in connection with anti-government protests that took place last November, according to a lawyer familiar with the case.
Human rights activists have criticized these death sentences, saying they aim to intimidate any future protesters.
Witnesses said - last Thursday - that the security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the southwestern city of Behbehan, who were protesting against economic problems and death sentences against the three men.
The "Don't Execute" tag in Persian spread millions of times on Twitter last week.
In a rare admission of popular anger, government spokesman Ali Rabei wrote - in an Iranian newspaper - that the tweets were "a civilian act by citizens (trying to) make their voices heard."
In the same context, Iranian police announced on Monday the arrest of the organizers of the protests that erupted last week, in refusal to execute the three men.
"All those who organized an illegal and illegal gathering in the city of Behbehan" were arrested, without specifying their number or identities, the Khuzestan state police chief Haider Abbaszadah was quoted as saying by the official IRNA agency.