Reported By: Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Iran’s judiciary announced on Saturday that it had executed a man accused of providing information about Iranian missile sites to Israeli intelligence, in a case that had not previously been reported by the media and that underscores the escalating pace of espionage-related executions in the country.
The death penalty was carried out against Hossein Pedaran, who judicial authorities said had provided the Mossad with information on missile sites in Isfahan province in central Iran. The judiciary said his sentence had been upheld by the Supreme Court. Authorities did not say when he was arrested or put on trial, and the case only became public with Saturday’s announcement.
The judiciary’s news agency, Mizan, published a detailed account of what it described as Pedaran’s confessions. According to that account, he first messaged the Central Intelligence Agency offering to cooperate and received no reply, then contacted Mossad and was answered days later by an officer who introduced himself as “Ben” using a Dutch WhatsApp number. The agency said Pedaran sent encrypted reports on military facilities and on staff who worked at them, including personal details and their spouses’ phone numbers, used numerous SIM cards registered to others, and was given a remote-control device capable of taking hidden photographs.
Mizan further alleged that Pedaran was paid in euros collected from a magnetic box behind a guardrail near a Tehran bridge and, on another occasion, from a coffee shop bathroom, and that a notebook on missile subjects marked “highly confidential” was found at his home. The agency said he cut contact before the war and tried to reach Mossad again by Telegram once it began, and was arrested. It said he had a lawyer, that a forensic examination found no impairment of his judgment, and that the court held his information had contributed to strikes in which personnel were killed or wounded. None of these claims can be independently verified, and Mizan did not provide any evidence for the allegations.
Iran’s espionage cases are heard by Revolutionary Courts, which operate without public scrutiny of the evidence, and the state routinely broadcasts and publishes confessions that defendants and their families have later said were obtained through torture, prolonged solitary confinement and threats against relatives. Rights organisations have documented the pattern for years and have recorded cases in which people detained during protests were subsequently charged with working for Israel.
The execution comes amid a broader surge in espionage-related hangings since the war with Israel and the United States that began in late February. Iran has executed at least a dozen people on espionage or Mossad-collaboration charges since the June 2025 war with Israel, according to human rights groups, and the pace has increased since the recent war began. Those executed this year include Ali Ardestani in January, Mehdi Farid, a former employee of the atomic energy organisation, in April, and Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat in August. In May, Iran hanged a man convicted of spying during the war, identified as Mojtaba Kian, who the judiciary said had sent information related to the country’s defence industry units to the enemy. Another man, Ehsan Afrashteh, was executed on May 13 on charges of espionage and intelligence cooperation for Israel.
The war has been devastating for Iran’s missile infrastructure. Throughout the conflict, numerous missile sites have been bombed, and Isfahan province, which hosts Iranian nuclear sites, has been one of the hardest hit. Israel’s military said in March that it had targeted Iran’s central explosives production facility in Isfahan, along with ballistic missile launch sites, weapons production facilities and air defence systems. Satellite imagery later revealed extensive damage to military infrastructure in the province. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the war, according to the judiciary’s statement.
The human rights context is stark. Iran Human Rights recorded at least 1,639 executions in the country in 2025, the highest annual total since 1989. In 2026, at least 532 people have been hanged, including 82 in August alone, according to the organisation. At least 24 individuals have been executed in connection with the January protests, and Amnesty International has documented an escalating campaign of arbitrary executions and death sentences against protesters, with authorities increasingly using broadly worded national security charges, including espionage and collaboration with hostile states, to convict individuals arrested during the unrest.
Iran carries out the second highest number of executions in the world after China, according to rights groups. The United Nations has repeatedly urged Iran to halt executions, with experts condemning the imposition of death sentences on protesters and expressing alarm at the use of national security-related charges to suppress dissent.
For the Iranian government, the execution of Pedaran is framed as a matter of national security and justice for a man who allegedly contributed to strikes that killed or wounded military personnel. For human rights organisations, it is the latest in a pattern of executions based on confessions obtained in detention and proceedings conducted without public scrutiny. The case had not previously been reported by the media, and the judiciary’s announcement provided no details about when Pedaran was arrested or tried, raising further questions about the transparency of the proceedings. As Iran continues its military campaign and its crackdown on perceived internal threats, the pace of espionage-related executions shows no sign of slowing.
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