PARIS – The Iranian authorities on May 13 hanged a man in his early 30s convicted of spying for Israel, the sixth person to be executed on such charges since the start of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website described Ehsan Afreshteh, 32, as “a spy trained by Mossad in Nepal who sold sensitive information to Israel”.
But the Norway-based Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGOs said in separate statements that Afreshteh had denied he shared top secret documents with Israeli intelligence and said he had been subjected to televised “forced confessions” obtained through torture.
A specialist in cybersecurity, Afreshteh had insisted that all he had done was to “warn independent websites about cyberattacks”, Hengaw said.
The rights groups said he had been living in Turkey but had received assurances from Iranian authorities that he could return home safely.
He was arrested on arrival, held in solitary confinement and in June 2025 sentenced to death by judge Abolqasem Salavati, who is notorious for handing out such verdicts.
His father, who had helped coordinate his return to Iran with the safety guarantees, suffered a fatal heart attack after hearing of the verdict, both IHR and Hengaw said.
Afreshteh is the sixth man to be hanged by Iran on charges of spying for Israel since the war began, according to IHR.
The authorities have also since then executed 25 men seen as “political prisoners” by IHR – 13 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.
“These executions are intended to create fear among the Iranian people,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, adding that Afreshteh had been sentenced to death “on false espionage charges, based on coerced confessions”.
The authorities on May 11 hanged Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, a post-graduate student from an elite Tehran university, on charges of espionage for Israel and the United States that he denied.
Iran is the world’s most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups.
In 2025, it hanged at least 1,639 people, according to figures from IHR, which has recorded at least 194 executions so far in 2026. AFP
