Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israel, activists slam 'unfair' trial
PARIS: Iran on Wednesday executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, in defiance of pleas from his family and activists for his life to be spared after what they described as an unfair trial.
Pedram Madani, 41, was hanged in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran after earlier this week being transferred from Evin prison in the capital where he had been held following his arrest in 2019.
He is the second man to be executed by Iran on charges of spying for Israel within two months, amid a surge in executions on all charges which activists say is aimed at instilling fear in the population.
The hanging comes against the background of a new period of escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise, over the Iranian nuclear programme.
The judiciary's Mizan Online website said Madani had been "spying in favour of the Zionist regime", using the term employed by institutions in the Islamic republic to denote Israel.
"Following the complete process of criminal procedure and the final confirmation and upholding of the verdict by the Supreme Court, he was brought to justice and executed," it said.
Unfair process
But activists and his family said that the case against him was deeply flawed and he had notably been denied the right to a lawyer of his choosing during the legal process.
Madani "was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court without access to a lawyer of his choice, through an unfair and non-transparent process orchestrated by security agencies," Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) which tracks the death penalty in Iran, told AFP.
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