Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel and another for planning IS group sabotage

FILE -A woman walks past a building damaged in a deadly June 13 Israeli airstrike at a residential compound in Tehran, Iran, on July 19, 2025. (AP Photo, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran executed two men on Wednesday, one who was accused of spying for Israel and another said to have been a member of the militant Islamic State group, state media reported.

A report by the judiciary news website Mizanonline identified the alleged spy as Rouzbeh Vadi and said he had relayed classified information to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Authorities said Vadi provided information about an Iranian nuclear scientist who was killed during Israel’s June airstrikes on Iran, the report said. It did not identify the scientist or the time and place of Vadi’s arrest.

Vadi met the Mossad officers five times in Vienna, Austria, the report also said.

The official IRNA news agency said later Wednesday that Vadi was working with unnamed but “important and sensitive agencies” in Iran and was attractive to Mossad because of his “access level” to information.

Also, state TV broadcast a brief video purporting to show Vadi’s alleged confession in which he says worked with Israel for financial gain. It was not immediately clear if he spoke under duress.

His profile on ResearchGate identifies him as a PhD graduate and says he was a senior nuclear safety assessment expert at Iran Nuclear Regulatory Authority, which is affiliated to the country Atomic Energy Organization. In 2011 he co-authored a dissertation with Abdolhamid Minuchehr, a nuclear scientist who was killed during Israeli strikes in June.

Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, said in June that Israel’s 12-day war on Iran included targeted strikes that killed at least 14 physicists and engineers involved with Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has hanged seven people for espionage during the conflict with Israel, sparking fears from activists that the government could conduct a wave of executions.

Also on Wednesday, Iran hanged a member of the militant Islamic State group on Wednesday convicted of plotting sabotage, Mizanonline reported.

Authorities has accused Mehdi Asgharzadeh of participating in military training in Syria and Iraq as an IS member, before illegally entering Iran with a four-member team. The other team members were killed in a fight with Iranian security forces, the news site reported.

The reports on Mizanonline said that for both men, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the sentences of lower courts and followed full legal procedures before executing them.