Islamic Republic Executes Four on Charges of 'Intelligence Cooperation' with Israel

The judiciary of the Islamic Republic announced that four individuals were executed in West Azerbaijan province early on Friday, January 8, on charges of 'moharebeh' (waging war against God) and 'efsad fil arz' (corruption on earth) through intelligence cooperation with Israel. The state-run news agency Mizan identified the four as 'Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omri, Rahman Parhazu, and Nasim Namazi.' Hours earlier, the human rights organization 'Hangaw' reported that the executions of Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omri Bardiani, and Rahman Parhazu were carried out at 11 PM on Thursday, January 7, in Urmia Central Prison. Hangaw stated that the execution of Nasim Namazi was temporarily postponed. According to the organization, government agencies informed the families of these prisoners that they would not return the bodies of the three executed prisoners. The third branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Urmia had sentenced five individuals, including Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omri Bardiani, Rahman Parhazu, Mansour Rasouli, and Nasim Namazi, to death for 'participating in intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of Israel' late last year. The death sentences for these prisoners were confirmed in recent days by Branch 39 of the Supreme Court. Reports indicate that these defendants, from Urmia, were 'abducted' by the city's intelligence forces over the past two years and spent 'months in solitary confinement' under 'physical torture.' According to Voice of America, Aram Omri Bardiani, one of the death row defendants arrested in the fall of 2021, previously stated that despite not even knowing what Mossad was, he was forced under torture to confess to collaborating with Israel. Mansour Rasouli, another defendant sentenced to death, had previously been identified by Israeli media as an agent of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with reports of 'interrogation' by Mossad agents inside Iran published. In this case, in addition to the five defendants sentenced to death, five other residents of Urmia were also sentenced to ten years in prison on similar charges. The names of these defendants are Kamran Hanareh, Fakhruddin Doudkanlouy Milan, Ashkan Osman Nejad Ghandok, Hassan Omrpour, and Amir Moshtagh Gengchin. International human rights organizations have repeatedly warned about baseless security accusations against citizens in Iran and the non-transparent judicial processes handling their cases.