Iran Executes Three Men Convicted of Operations for Israel and United States

Iranian authorities executed three men on Sunday after the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences for carrying out operations on behalf of Israel and the United States during nationwide anti-government protests in January.

Hassan Divband, Hamid Kazemi, and Reza Zanganeh were convicted of participating in armed attacks, arson, and property destruction in Karaj west of Tehran, according to the judiciary. Judicial authorities stated that the defendants possessed firearms, knives, Molotov cocktails, and homemade explosive devices, and damaged an electrical substation that caused power outages in parts of the city.

State media reported that the men acted in coordination with calls for demonstrations by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Other defendants connected to the case received prison sentences ranging from five to 10 years. The protests began in December over the rising cost of living before escalating into widespread unrest, which authorities stated resulted in more than 3,000 deaths while attributing the violence to foreign orchestration. Foreign-based non-governmental organizations reported higher casualty figures and asserted that security forces fired on demonstrators.