Iran hangs ‘Mossad agent' as tension with Israel worsen
'Esmaeil Fekri, a Mossad agent convicted of the capital offences of 'corruption on Earth' and 'moharebeh' (waging war against God) was hanged after going through the full process of criminal procedure,' the judiciary's Mizan Online news website said.
Mizan said the execution was carried out after all legal procedures were completed and the verdict was upheld by the supreme court.
On Monday, Iran's chief justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei vowed swift trials for people arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.
'If someone is arrested for having ties to and collaborating with the Zionist regime, their trial and punishment should be carried out and announced very quickly, in accordance with the law and given the war conditions,' Ejei said, quoted by Tasnim news agency.
On Sunday, Iranian media reported that police in Alborz province, west of Tehran, had arrested two people suspected of links to the Mossad.
Later on the same day, Israel said it had arrested two citizens suspected of working for Iran's intelligence services.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel on Friday launched a surprise attack, saying it was targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities.
So far it has killed at least 224 people in the Islamic republic, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
Iran has retaliated with barrages of drone and missiles that have killed at least 24 people in Israel, according to the latest figures from the prime minister's office.
Iran does not recognise Israel and has long accused it of carrying out sabotage operations against its nuclear facilities, as well as assassinating its scientists. — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Lebanon warns against foreign meddling as Iran security chief visits
BEIRUT, Aug 14 — Lebanese leaders firmly rejected any efforts at foreign interference during a visit by Iran's security chief Wednesday, with the prime minister saying Beirut would 'tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat' after Tehran voiced opposition to plans to disarm Hezbollah. The uncharacteristically blunt remarks hinted at a changed balance of power in a country where Iran has long wielded substantial influence by funding and arming Hezbollah. The visit by Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani comes after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise plans to disarm the Tehran-backed group by the end of the year. Last week, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader had said the Islamic republic was 'certainly opposed' to the disarmament plan. 'We reject any interference in our internal affairs,' Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday, adding that 'it is forbidden for anyone… to bear arms and to use foreign backing as leverage', according to a statement from his office. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam was equally firm, saying in a statement: 'Lebanon will not accept, in any form, any interference in its internal affairs, and expects from the Iranian side a clear and explicit commitment to respect these principles.' Hezbollah has been a key part of Tehran's so-called axis of resistance against Israel, but Iran and its allies have suffered a series of blows. Hezbollah experienced devastating losses, including the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, over more than a year of hostilities with Israel that ended with a November 2024 ceasefire. A month later, longtime Syrian ruler and Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad was ousted, depriving Hezbollah of its main conduit for weapons and supplies from Iran. And finally, Israel went to war with Iran itself in June, with the United States stepping in briefly to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. Ever since last year's war, Hezbollah's firm grip on Lebanese politics has been slipping. 'Grave sin' Hezbollah has slammed the government's new disarmament push as a 'grave sin', while Tehran has also declared its opposition. But in Beirut, Larijani said that no foreign power should give orders to Lebanon, adding that it was not Iran but the United States that was intervening. Lebanon's cabinet recently considered a US proposal that included a timetable for Hezbollah's disarmament, with Washington pressing Beirut to take action. 'Any decision that the Lebanese government makes in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,' Larijani said. 'The one who interferes in Lebanese affairs is the one who plans for you, gives you a timetable from thousands of kilometres away. We did not give you any plan.' Salam, however, appeared to make clear the changed nature of the relationship, declaring that 'Lebanon's decisions are made by the Lebanese themselves, who tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat'. 'Lebanon, which was the first defender of the Palestinian cause and paid a heavy price in its confrontation with Israel, has no lessons to receive from anyone,' he continued. Iran's government has long portrayed itself as a defender of the Palestinians, with Hamas in Gaza another member of its axis. 'Stand by' Lebanon Before the latest war with Israel, Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military. It long maintained it had to keep its arsenal in order to defend Lebanon from attack, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage. In Beirut, Larijani vowed continued Iranian support. 'If… the Lebanese people are suffering, we in Iran will also feel this pain and we will stand by the dear people of Lebanon in all circumstances,' Larijani told reporters. In addition to meeting President Aoun and Prime Minister Salam, Larijani was due to sit down with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah. He was also expected to visit the grave of Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli bombing in south Beirut last year. — AFP
New Straits Times
14 hours ago
- New Straits Times
NST Leader: Israel's killing fields of journalists
We may be living in the 21st century, but in our midst is an uncivilised state — Israel — led by a despicable tribe of genocidal barbarians. If the genocidal intent was private before, it has now been made public from the prime minister downwards. The Zionist regime led by Benjamin Netanyahu has made a mockery of every piece of international law and the legal institutions that rule on it. Even foreign state ministers and their families are threatened by its secret service, Mossad, for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), like South Africa's former foreign minister and her family were. Even the ICJ was slammed for hearing the genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa. Mossad did the same to the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, pressuring her to abandon her war crime probe. Israel's pressure on Karim Khan, who is on leave as the chief prosecutor of the ICC, has a more dastardly twist. He now stands accused of sexual misconduct. From Khan's statements to the media, it is now clear that Netanyahu was trying to stop the ICC from issuing arrest warrants for alleged war crimes against him and his former defence minister. We are not surprised. Just recently, Netanyahu recruited the help of US President Donald Trump, who promptly said in his social media post that the trial should be cancelled immediately or a pardon given to "a GREAT HERO". An alleged war criminal on a genocidal rampage, a great hero? A week later the court said it was delaying the case on "security" grounds. What an unruly world we live in. Perhaps all this has to do with Israel's dark history. After all, Israel was an outcome of a lie by the European Jews and the West: the European Jews were people without a land and Palestine, a land without people. Historical facts have proven it to be a fabricated lie for a colonial project. That foundational lie has turned the Zionists into serial liars. The latest lie is that the Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, killed by Israel's military on Sunday, was a Hamas leader. The fact is, as rights advocates are saying, he was targeted for his frontline reporting on Gaza. To a lying regime, speaking truth to power is a crime. It goes against the Zionist regime's DNA. Al Sharif was one of the 237 journalists assassinated since Oct 7, 2023. Were they all Hamas leaders? Were the four journalists killed along with Al Sharif Hamas leaders, too? As Emma Graham-Harrison writes in her op-ed in The Guardian, Israel is running two campaigns in Gaza: one for the military control of the strip and another for the narrative control of how the world understands what happens there. Israel's answer is to ban foreign journalists, and if they still manage to get in, kill them. Netanyahu, the truth has long ago been out: the pen is mightier than all the weapons you have been supplied.
The Star
17 hours ago
- The Star
Lebanon's Aoun tells top Iranian official: only state holds arms, no outside interference
BEIRUT (Reuters) -No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, President Joseph Aoun told a senior Iranian official on Wednesday, days after the cabinet approved the objectives of a U.S.-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group. During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's top security body, Aoun warned against foreign interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect. "The friendship we seek with Iran must be with all Lebanese, not through one sect or component alone," Aoun said, according to a statement from his office. He added that recent language used by some Iranian officials had not been helpful, and reaffirmed that the Lebanese state and its armed forces were solely responsible for safeguarding all citizens. (Reporting by Jana Choukeir and Ahmed Elimam; Editing by Toby Chopra and Aidan Lewis)
