Iran on Wednesday executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, in defiance of pleas from his family and activists for his life to be spared after what they described as an unfair trial.
Pedram Madani, 41, was hanged in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran after earlier this week being transferred from Evin prison in the capital where he had been held following his arrest in 2019.
He is the second man to be executed by Iran on charges of spying for Israel within two months, amid a surge in executions on all charges which activists say is aimed at instilling fear in the population.
The hanging comes against the background of a new period of escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise, over the Iranian nuclear programme.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online website said Madani had been “spying in favour of the Zionist regime”, using the term employed by institutions in the Islamic republic to denote Israel.
“Following the complete process of criminal procedure and the final confirmation and upholding of the verdict by the Supreme Court, he was brought to justice and executed,” it said.
But activists and his family said that the case against him was deeply flawed and he had notably been denied the right to a lawyer of his choosing during the legal process.
Madani “was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court without access to a lawyer of his choice, through an unfair and non-transparent process orchestrated by security agencies,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) which tracks the death penalty in Iran, told AFP.
“The Islamic Republic’s goal in executing Pedram Madani and others who are hanged daily is solely to instill fear within society and to conceal the regime’s widespread corruption and systemic failures.”
The Dadban legal monitor said in a statement on social media that in such a trial before a Revolutionary Court the defendant is denied the possibility of defending himself and the judge also has “no option” of rejecting the case.
“It is more than a legal accusation — it is a charge used as a tool to issue and carry out the death penalty,” it said.
In a video posted on Tuesday by IHR and other groups warning of the risk of the imminent execution, his mother described Madani as a “man who loves his country and loves his family.”
“My son’s case is full of flaws and his death sentence must be revoked,” she said.
There had on the eve of the execution been numerous pleas from Iranian campaigners for his life to be spared, including from Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi, currently on temporary release from serving her own prison sentence.
“The Islamic republic uses the death penalty as a tool to instill fear and intensify repression against the people,” she said in a video statement.
“There was not even a chosen lawyer on the case. Pedram’s cellmates testify he confessed falsely and under pressure. In Revolutionary Courts these false confessions serve as the basis of death sentences,” she added.
According to Mizan, Madani was accused of transmitting classified information and holding meetings with Mossad officers abroad, including in Brussels.
The judiciary said he had travelled to “the occupied territories” — the term used by Iranian officials to describe Israel — prior to his arrest in 2020-2021.
He was also convicted of acquiring “illicit wealth” by receiving euros and bitcoin from Israel.
In April, Iran executed Mohsen Langarneshin for allegedly aiding Mossad in the 2022 killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards colonel in Tehran.
Rights groups including IHR have said Langarneshin was executed after an unfair trial and a confession extracted under torture.
According to IHR, there have been at least 478 executions in Iran this year alone, including more than 60 hangings in the last 10 days.
