Iranian courts have sentenced one person to death for spying for the CIA and jailed two others for 10 years for the same crime, as well as imprisoning a fourth person for 10 years for spying for Britain, the judiciary said on Tuesday
The verdicts come amid spiralling tensions between Tehran and the United States since President Donald Trump last year withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy in order to force Tehran to renegotiate the pact.
It was not immediately clear if any of the cases were linked to Iran’s announcement in July that it captured 17 spies working for the CIA.
“One person has been sentenced to death for spying for America’s intelligence service … but the ruling has been appealed,” judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted as saying by the judiciary’s news website Mizan.
The other two men, identified as Ali Nefriyeh and Mohammad Ali Babapour, received final 10-year sentences for spying for the CIA, and were ordered to repay $55,000 they had received, he said.
Mohammad Amin-Nasab was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for British intelligence, Esmaili said.It was not immediately clear if any of the cases were linked to Iran’s announcement in July that it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili did not give any details about the person sentenced to death.
But he said the suspect had appealed and a final decision on their sentence would be made by the appeals court.
Mohammad Amin-Nasab has been jailed for 10 years for aiding British intelligence services. Ali Nefriyeh and Mohammad Ali Babapour were each sentenced to the same prison term for allegedly spying for the CIA.
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Mr Esmaili also acknowledged for the first time that authorities had detained British-Iranian academic Kameel Ahmady.
The anthropologist’s wife Shafagh Rahmani said in August that he had been arrested at their home in Tehran and was being held on unknown charges.
Mr Ahmady – who has been a UK citizen for 25 years - is an internationally renowned expert on female circumcision and has written about issues often controversial in Iran, such as women’s rights and child marriage.
( Corruption)An Iranian court sentenced the brother of President Hassan Rouhani to five years in prison, a judiciary spokesperson was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the semi-official Fars news.
In May, Hossein Fereydoun was sentenced to an unspecified jail term in a corruption case that the president’s supporters allege was politically motivated. Judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Esmaili said Freydoun was jailed for five years but he may face further charges in another case, without giving details, Fars reported.
“Regarding the case of Hossein Fereydoun, the sentence of seven years handed down by the court of first instance has been reduced to five years,” Gholamhossein Esmaili told a press conference.
Esmaili said the sentence was final as there was no further avenue of appeal.
Fereydoun was also ordered to pay a fine and to pay back the bribes he was alleged to have received, the spokesperson said without giving any figures.
Fereydoun acted as a key adviser and gatekeeper to the president before his arrest in July 2017.
The brothers do not share the same name because Rouhani changed his when he was younger to a word meaning “cleric”.
Fereydoun’s trial opened in February. Very few details have emerged in the Iranian press.
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