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Scottish Sun
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Iran hangs ‘spy' accused of helping Israel assassinate IRGC commander in brutal execution after forcing a ‘confession'
He was among those detained in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests that rocked the country in 2022 DEATH STATE Iran hangs 'spy' accused of helping Israel assassinate IRGC commander in brutal execution after forcing a 'confession' IRAN has executed a political prisoner accused of spying for Israel, despite his claims of being tortured into making a false confession. Mohsen Langarneshin, 34, was hanged Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, the judiciary's media centre confirmed. 4 Mohsen Langarneshin was executed in Iran this week Credit: Iran Insight 4 The 34-year-old was accused of spying for Israel's Mossad Credit: Alamy 4 Langarneshin was hanged at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran Credit: X The official IRNA news agency described him as a "senior spy" for Israel's Mossad, claiming he helped in the 2022 assassination of Revolutionary Guard Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei. Langarneshin had repeatedly denied the charges, insisting he was forced into confessing under duress. 'In the interrogations, they put me under so much pressure,' he said in a voice message from prison. 'They said they would arrest every member of my family and keep them until I no longer recognise them.' He also revealed he was threatened with "severe torture unless he confessed" and later admitted - under pressure - to buying a motorbike with a camera and transporting explosives, allegations he insisted were fabricated. Arrested on July 3, 2023, by security forces in Tehran, Langarneshin was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse. He had been among those detained in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests that rocked the country in 2022. Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on charges of 'espionage for Israel,' citing a case built by the Ministry of Intelligence. The judiciary accused him of 'supporting the assassination of a person named Sayyad Khodaei, facilitating attacks on a Defense Ministry-linked industrial site in Isfahan, and handling logistics, equipment, safehouses, and money transfers for Mossad operatives.' Langarneshin's family had pleaded for clemency outside Evin Prison as the execution approached. War between US and Iran has never been closer - and Tehran won't back down to Trump, warns ex-UK ambassador His supporters pointed to confirmed alibis and a lack of evidence linking him to the crimes. 'The 34-year-old network security expert is convicted of alleged involvement in IRGC assassinations despite NO evidence and confirmed alibis,' one source said. Langarneshin was moved to solitary confinement earlier this week in a chilling sign of his looming execution, according to Iran International. The Islamic Republic has consistently denied allegations of torture or wrongful imprisonment, despite decades of documented abuses against political detainees. Rights groups have long condemned Iran's use of torture and forced confessions. Iran Human Rights stated in March: 'The Islamic Republic has used televised confessions as a propaganda tool aimed at creating fear and justifying the heavy sentences handed down to its political opponents and activists since its inception in 1979.' 'Such confessions are extracted after physical and/or psychological torture, lengthy solitary confinement, threats or promises of reduction in the gravity of sentences and threats against family members,' the group added. 4 Iran came second globally as the country with most recorded executions in 2024
The Irish Sun
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
Iran hangs ‘spy' accused of helping Israel assassinate IRGC commander in brutal execution after forcing a ‘confession'
IRAN has executed a political prisoner accused of spying for Israel, despite his claims of being tortured into making a false confession. Mohsen Langarneshin, 34, was hanged Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, the judiciary's media centre confirmed. Advertisement 4 Mohsen Langarneshin was executed in Iran this week Credit: Iran Insight 4 The 34-year-old was accused of spying for Israel's Mossad Credit: Alamy 4 Langarneshin was hanged at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran Credit: X The official IRNA news agency described him as a "senior spy" for Israel's Mossad, claiming he helped in the 2022 assassination of Revolutionary Guard Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei. Langarneshin had repeatedly denied the charges, insisting he was forced into confessing under duress. 'In the interrogations, they put me under so much pressure,' he said in a voice message from prison. 'They said they would arrest every member of my family and keep them until I no longer recognise them.' Advertisement Read more world news He also revealed he was threatened with "severe torture unless he confessed" and later admitted - under pressure - to buying a motorbike with a camera and transporting explosives, allegations he insisted were fabricated. Arrested on July 3, 2023, by security forces in Tehran, Langarneshin was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse. He had been among those detained in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests that rocked the country in 2022. Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on charges of 'espionage for Israel,' citing a case built by the Ministry of Intelligence. Advertisement Most read in The Sun The judiciary accused him of 'supporting the assassination of a person named Sayyad Khodaei, facilitating attacks on a Defense Ministry-linked industrial site in Isfahan, and handling logistics, equipment, safehouses, and money transfers for Mossad operatives.' Langarneshin's family had pleaded for clemency outside Evin Prison as the execution approached. War between US and Iran has never been closer - and Tehran won't back down to Trump, warns ex-UK ambassador His supporters pointed to confirmed alibis and a lack of evidence linking him to the crimes. 'The 34-year-old network security expert is convicted of alleged involvement in IRGC assassinations despite NO evidence and confirmed alibis,' one source said. Advertisement Langarneshin was moved to solitary confinement earlier this week in a chilling sign of his looming execution, according to The Islamic Republic has consistently denied allegations of torture or wrongful imprisonment, despite decades of documented abuses against political detainees. Rights groups have long condemned Iran Human Rights stated in March: 'The Islamic Republic has used televised confessions as a propaganda tool aimed at creating fear and justifying the heavy sentences handed down to its political opponents and activists since its inception in 1979.' Advertisement 'Such confessions are extracted after physical and/or psychological torture, lengthy solitary confinement, threats or promises of reduction in the gravity of sentences and threats against family members,' the group added. 4 Iran came second globally as the country with most recorded executions in 2024 Iran: the world's second top executioner in 2024 IRAN executed at least 972 people in 2024, solidifying its position as the second most prolific executioner on the planet after China, according to Amnesty international. The staggering figure marks a sharp from the 853 executions recorded in 2023, with Iran responsible for the lion's share of a deadly global spike. The Islamic Republic topped the Middle East rankings, outpacing Saudi Arabia and Iraq - together accounting for 91% of all recorded executions worldwide. Executions in Iran were often accompanied by barbaric punishments, including public floggings, limp amputations, and even eye-gouging. The spike comes amid growing fears the death penalty is being wielded as a tool to crush dissent. Protesters linked to the Mahsa Amini uprising have been sentenced to death, raising alarm among rights groups. 'Those who dare challenge authorities have faced the most cruel of punishments, particularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia, with the death penalty used to silence those brave enough to speak out,' said Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard. Only China, dubbed the 'world's leading executioner,' is believed to have carried out more killings, though exact figures remain a state secret. Other high-ranking countries include Saudi Arabia — where executions doubled to at least 345 — and Iraq, which quadrupled its use of the death penalty with 63 recorded executions.
The Sun
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Iran hangs ‘spy' accused of helping Israel assassinate IRGC commander in brutal execution after forcing a ‘confession'
IRAN has executed a political prisoner accused of spying for Israel, despite his claims of being tortured into making a false confession. Mohsen Langarneshin, 34, was hanged Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, the judiciary's media centre confirmed. 4 4 4 The official IRNA news agency described him as a "senior spy" for Israel 's Mossad, claiming he helped in the 2022 assassination of Revolutionary Guard Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei. Langarneshin had repeatedly denied the charges, insisting he was forced into confessing under duress. 'In the interrogations, they put me under so much pressure,' he said in a voice message from prison. 'They said they would arrest every member of my family and keep them until I no longer recognise them.' He also revealed he was threatened with "severe torture unless he confessed" and later admitted - under pressure - to buying a motorbike with a camera and transporting explosives, allegations he insisted were fabricated. Arrested on July 3, 2023, by security forces in Tehran, Langarneshin was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse. He had been among those detained in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests that rocked the country in 2022. Tehran's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on charges of 'espionage for Israel,' citing a case built by the Ministry of Intelligence. The judiciary accused him of 'supporting the assassination of a person named Sayyad Khodaei, facilitating attacks on a Defense Ministry-linked industrial site in Isfahan, and handling logistics, equipment, safehouses, and money transfers for Mossad operatives.' Langarneshin's family had pleaded for clemency outside Evin Prison as the execution approached. His supporters pointed to confirmed alibis and a lack of evidence linking him to the crimes. 'The 34-year-old network security expert is convicted of alleged involvement in IRGC assassinations despite NO evidence and confirmed alibis,' one source said. Langarneshin was moved to solitary confinement earlier this week in a chilling sign of his looming execution, according to Iran International. The Islamic Republic has consistently denied allegations of torture or wrongful imprisonment, despite decades of documented abuses against political detainees. Rights groups have long condemned Iran's use of torture and forced confessions. Iran Human Rights stated in March: 'The Islamic Republic has used televised confessions as a propaganda tool aimed at creating fear and justifying the heavy sentences handed down to its political opponents and activists since its inception in 1979.' 'Such confessions are extracted after physical and/or psychological torture, lengthy solitary confinement, threats or promises of reduction in the gravity of sentences and threats against family members,' the group added. Iran: the world's second top executioner in 2024 IRAN executed at least 972 people in 2024, solidifying its position as the second most prolific executioner on the planet after China, according to Amnesty international. The staggering figure marks a sharp from the 853 executions recorded in 2023, with Iran responsible for the lion's share of a deadly global spike. The Islamic Republic topped the Middle East rankings, outpacing Saudi Arabia and Iraq - together accounting for 91% of all recorded executions worldwide. Executions in Iran were often accompanied by barbaric punishments, including public floggings, limp amputations, and even eye-gouging. The spike comes amid growing fears the death penalty is being wielded as a tool to crush dissent. Protesters linked to the Mahsa Amini uprising have been sentenced to death, raising alarm among rights groups. 'Those who dare challenge authorities have faced the most cruel of punishments, particularly in Iran and Saudi Arabia, with the death penalty used to silence those brave enough to speak out,' said Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard. Only China, dubbed the 'world's leading executioner,' is believed to have carried out more killings, though exact figures remain a state secret. Other high-ranking countries include Saudi Arabia — where executions doubled to at least 345 — and Iraq, which quadrupled its use of the death penalty with 63 recorded executions.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
In Espionage and War, Secure Communication Is Key. Just Ask These Spies.
Given all the press attention and congressional hearings, the recent leak of war plans in strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen may feel like a singular event. And mistakes aside, as the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, asserted before Congress, the operation itself 'was very successful and continues to be very successful.' So why worry? But consider the career highlights of some of the world's most noteworthy spies in these three new books. The Determined Spy The biggest surprise in Waller's lively biography of Frank Wisner, THE DETERMINED SPY: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner (Dutton, 645 pp., $36), is how stunningly naïve U.S. covert and martial operations have been at times. As Waller shows, Wisner's tenure provides one of the harsher lessons of the world of espionage: What appears to be a success at the time may not prove so over the long run. Wisner was a major figure at the C.I.A. in the 1950s, when the agency toppled the governments of Iran and Guatemala. Washington was so pleased with those results that it contemplated doing the same in Cuba. That's how, in 1961, we ended up with the fiasco known as the Bay of Pigs. That leads to a second harsh lesson that intelligence agencies don't like to talk about much — how frequently their people in the field are incompetent. For example, during part of World War II, the chief of American spying in the continental crossroads city of Istanbul — perhaps the most fruitful location for spies at the time — was Lanning 'Packy' Macfarland, a former savings and loan executive from Illinois who was fond of wearing a trench coat and slouch hat. This 'dangerous buffoon,' as Waller calls him, had two lovers: One worked for the Germans, the other for the Russians. Waller, the author of several books on national security, reports that when Wisner replaced Macfarland in Istanbul, he had almost as little experience, but apparently a great deal more native intelligence and drive. Wisner even stood a good chance of becoming the head of the C.I.A. until he suffered a series of manic highs caused by bipolar disorder. He left the agency and, in 1965, killed himself. The results of his coup in Iran live on even today, with the government there regarding the United States as 'the Great Satan.' Iran's Ministry of Intelligence Today's C.I.A., trying to adjust to the mixed directions that come from President Trump, Elon Musk and the president's other assorted appointees, likely would get a bit of quiet sympathy — but not much — from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence. As described by Ward in IRAN'S MINISTRY OF INTELLIGENCE: A Concise History (Georgetown University Press, 195 pp., paperback, $26.95), Iranian intelligence has frequently found itself torn between the country's unelected supreme leader and its elected president. In 2011, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to push out the intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi, supposedly for wiretapping the president's chief of staff. The supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's displeasure bubbled up through the media, and the chief spook went back to work while Ahmadinejad pouted at home for a week. Two years later, Moslehi was in trouble again, allegedly for spying on a legislator. The country also has intense interagency rivalries, much like the well-documented one that has long persisted in America between the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. The Iranian intelligence ministry, which conducts foreign operations but mainly focuses on suppressing internal dissent, is frequently overshadowed by Iran's more ideological and militaristic Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In 2016, for instance, there was squabbling over who ran better background checks as each agency independently vetted parliamentary candidates ahead of that year's election. By 2023 the tension between the two organizations was so persistent that Khamenei told them in writing to be more cooperative with each other. Overall, Ward's book is thin gruel, featuring only a few interesting tidbits, such as the fact that the details of the Iran-contra scandal — that is, the astonishing report that the Reagan administration was sending weapons to Iran in exchange for American hostages held in Lebanon — were first leaked to a Beirut magazine by a senior Revolutionary Guard official who was unhappy with the shadowy deal. (This dissenting hothead was executed for his intervention, Ward notes.) But the single biggest revelation for me in this book was the author's mention — in an aside — that despite having been a C.I.A. analyst for nearly 30 years specializing in Iranian security issues, he neither speaks nor reads Persian. Imagine an Iranian trying to be an expert on the United States without being able to watch American television and movies, read its books and magazines, and converse with its officials and citizens. Have we learned nothing from the exploits of Packy Macfarland? Watching the Jackals In intelligence, sometimes the most illuminating information comes from unexpected quarters. Of several recent books on covert operations, the most enlightening is WATCHING THE JACKALS: Prague's Covert Liaisons With Cold War Terrorists and Revolutionaries (Georgetown University Press, 350 pp., paperback, $39.95). Richterova, a political scientist at King's College London, lived a researcher's dream: 99 percent of the existing files of the intelligence agencies of Communist Czechoslovakia have been released — and, what's more, without any redactions. She describes how she was the first to read many of these 'freshly declassified files and sift through them as they were brought into the archive reading room on heavy-duty trolleys.' The odd factoids alone are worth the price of admission, demonstrating just how minutely detailed and vivid these documents can be. In 1966, when Che Guevara visited Czechoslovakia for three months as he prepared for his ill-fated mission to Bolivia, he and his companions had only two records to listen to, one by the South African singer Miriam Makeba and the other by the Beatles. In 1977, Abu Daoud, one of the planners of the Munich Olympics massacre five years earlier, checked into Prague's Hotel Intercontinental just as the International Olympic Committee was meeting there — apparently just a macabre coincidence. Two years later, when the volatile Venezuelan terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal accidentally locked himself out of his room at the same hotel, he angrily walked the hallways of the establishment brandishing a large revolver. The heart of Richterova's surprising work lies in the uneasy relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the 'plodding' Czech intelligence services. Czechoslovakia's relationship with the P.L.O. began uncomfortably and worsened with time. 'It was characterized by dissonance — a mismatch in expectations, objectives and preferred tactics,' she writes. Among other things, she adds, this tends to emphatically disprove the allegations made by the journalist Claire Sterling and others in the 1980s that there was extensive cooperation between the Communist Warsaw Pact states and terrorist organizations. The Palestinians, their skills honed by their ongoing fight with Israeli intelligence, ran circles around Prague's operatives. Richterova notes that the Arabs were veterans in espionage tradecraft, using multiple disguises and passports. Some, working for Carlos the Jackal as bodyguards in Prague, were so bold as to detain and question a Czech intelligence officer who was tailing them. The P.L.O. did try to please Prague, partly by proposing a variety of risky operations. Among these was an offer to kill or kidnap Czech exiles who were critical of the Communist regime, including a former chief of the country's state-run television network. The P.L.O. also said that it could attack the Munich headquarters of Radio Free Europe. Prague listened, but was wary of carrying out such schemes, given the potential blowback from the West. The country's leaders might have had other concerns as well: Czech spies deemed P.L.O. agents especially weak on clandestine communications. At one point in 1983, they suggested a course in cryptology. As Trump administration officials have learned lately, communications security may seem like a minor issue — until it blows up in your face.
Shafaq News
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Kurdish Iranian prisoner faces imminent execution, activists warn
Shafaq News/ On Monday, human rights activists and political figures raised alarm over the potential execution of Kurdish Iranian political prisoner Verisheh Moradi, detained for over a year and a half. A statement signed by 247 political and civil activists warned that her death sentence could soon be upheld by Iran's Supreme Court and carried out at any moment. Moradi was arrested on August 1, 2023, by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj and later transferred to Tehran's Evin Prison. In November 2024, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced her to death on charges of "armed rebellion against the state" (baghi) due to alleged links with Kurdish opposition groups. According to activists, she spent five months in solitary confinement, enduring "severe psychological and physical pressure" before her sentencing by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. They denounced the trial process, highlighting that "neither she nor her lawyer was allowed to present a defense." Moradi's contributions to women's empowerment in Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria were also emphasized, with advocates arguing that her case is a "crackdown on Iranian women's rights, not just an isolated incident." Iran has witnessed a rise in executions, particularly against ethnic minorities and political dissidents. In 2024, at least 31 women were executed, marking the highest number recorded by Iran Human Rights (IHR). Calls for an immediate halt to executions have intensified, with human rights organizations urging Iranian authorities to overturn death sentences against political prisoners and ensure fair trials. The growing crackdown has drawn global scrutiny, as more than 50 Kurdish political detainees and thousands convicted on drug-related charges remain at risk of execution.
