Iran on Monday executed a 29-year-old postgraduate student accused of spying for the CIA and Israel’s Mossad, state and rights group accounts said, in the latest use of capital punishment amid heightened tensions with the United States and Israel.
Authorities identified the man as Erfan Shakourzadeh and said he had been convicted of collaborating with foreign intelligence services. The judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported that he was involved in satellite-related work and provided details about his workplace, access and duties to those agencies; it also said his televised “confessions” were planned for broadcast.
Norway-based rights organizations Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Hengaw said Shakourzadeh was a top-ranked master’s student in aerospace engineering at Iran University of Science and Technology and that he had rejected the allegations in a message from prison. Hengaw and IHR reported he was arrested in February 2025, moved recently from Tehran’s Evin prison to Ghezel Hesar, and was executed at dawn after a sudden transfer.
Both groups accuse authorities of holding him in prolonged solitary confinement, subjecting him to physical and psychological abuse, and forcing a false confession. According to the prison note published by rights groups, Shakourzadeh said the espionage charges were fabricated and that torture and solitary detention had been used to extract his statement; he appealed for public attention to prevent further executions of people he described as innocent.
State outlets and the judiciary maintain that the evidence supports the conviction. Iranian officials have in recent months emphasized accelerating executions as part of a broader campaign against what they call domestic and foreign adversaries.
Human rights organizations say this execution is the fifth carried out on espionage charges since the start of the conflict that intensified in late February. IHR has also documented a number of other recent death sentences and executions: 13 men convicted in connection with January protests, one more tied to 2022 demonstrations, and 10 defendants accused of links to banned opposition groups.
Rights groups allege Iran has used capital punishment to intimidate the population during periods of political and international strain and frequently conducts secretive trials that limit defendants’ ability to mount a full defense. IHR and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty reported in a joint annual review that at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran in 2025, including 48 women. IHR has recorded at least 190 executions in 2026 so far.
The case has drawn renewed criticism from activists calling for scrutiny of Iran’s judicial practices and for international attention to prevent further executions of people they say were denied fair trials and subjected to torture.