Iran says 2 convicted of spying for Israel, Germany, UK

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said one of the convicts, Massud Mossaheb, had been "spying for (Israeli spy agency) Mossad and Germany in the guise" of the general secretary of the Austrian-Iranian Society.

Speaking to state television, he said the second man, Shahram Shirkhani, had been working for British intelligence.

Last month, Iran executed a former translator convicted of spying on its forces for the US and Israel, including help to locate a top Iranian general killed later in a US drone strike.

"Mahmoud Mousavi Majd's sentence was carried out on Monday morning over the charge of espionage so that the case of his betrayal to his country will be closed forever," the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported.

Majd had spied "on various security fields, especially the armed forces and the Quds Force and the whereabouts and movements of martyr General Qasem Soleimani," judiciary spokeswoman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference in July.

Majd had been found guilty of receiving large sums of money from both the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad, Esmaili said.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and was killed in January in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport.

Iran retaliated by firing a volley of ballistic missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq, but US President Donald Trump opted against responding militarily.

While the attack on the western Iraqi base of Ain Al-Asad left no US soldiers dead, dozens suffered brain trauma.

Majd had migrated to Syria in the 1970s with his family and worked as an English and Arabic language translator at a company, Mizan said.

When war broke out, he chose to stay in the country while his family left.

"His knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Syria's geography made him close to Iranian military advisers and he took responsibilities in groups stationed from Idlib to Latakia," the site added.

Majd was not a member of the Revolutionary Guards "but infiltrated many sensitive areas under the cover of being a translator."

He was found to have been paid "American dollars to reveal information on adviser convoys, military equipment and communication systems, commanders and their movements, important geographical areas, codes and passwords" until he came under scrutiny and his access was downgraded.

He was arrested in October 2018, Mizan said.

Iran in February handed down a similar sentence for Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell information on Iran's nuclear programme.

Tehran announced in December it had arrested eight people "linked to the CIA" and involved in nationwide street protests that erupted the previous month over a surprise petrol price hike.

It also said in July 2019 that it had dismantled a CIA spy ring, arrested 17 suspects between March 2018 and March 2019 and sentenced some of them to death.

Trump at the time dismissed the claim as "totally false".

Agencies contributed to this report.

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