Iran executes 'Mossad agent' for spying

Iran on Tuesday executed a man convicted of assassinating a top nuclear scientist in 2010 and spying for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, the Iranian state news agency (IRNA) reported. Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, was hanged at Tehran’s Evin Prison after being sentenced to death in August last year for the murder of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. He had confessed to the crime, the central prosecutor’s office said. “Majid Jamali Fashi, the Mossad spy and the person who assassinated Masoud Ali Mohammadi, our nation’s nuclear scientist was hanged Tuesday morning,” IRNA reported. Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at Tehran University, was killed in a bomb attack outside his home in January 2010. Jamali Fashi also faced charges of cooperating with Israel’s spy agency and of having received $120,000 for passing on intelligence to Mossad, the website report added, according to AFP news agency. Local media on August 28 reported that Jamali Fashi was sentenced to death after being “convicted of Moharebeh (waging war against God) for placing a bomb-laden bike and blowing it up in front of martyr Ali Mohammadi’s home, collaboration with the Zionist regime and Mossad.” Tuesday’s report said Fashi had travelled abroad on several occasions to receive training from Mossad before returning to Iran to plot the assassination. Yet Western analysts said Ali-Mohammadi, a 50-year-old Tehran University professor, had little, if any, role in Iran’s sensitive nuclear programme. A spokesperson for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said at the time he was not involved in its activities. The most recent attack on an Iranian scientist occurred in January. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan - a deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility - was killed when a magnetic bomb planted on his vehicle detonated. Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of assassinating four Iranian scientists in order to sabotage its controversial nuclear programme. Washington has denied any US role, while Israel has declined to comment. Last month, Iranian intelligence officials said they had arrested 15 people they called a “major terror and sabotage network with links to the Zionist regime.” The group had plotted to assassinate an Iranian scientist in February, the authorities said.