20 December 2025 :
December 20, 2025 - IRAN. Aghil Keshavarz executed in Urmia on 20 December
We received a report from Maryam Pezeshki, a friend of Hands off Cain, about the execution of Aghil Keshavarz.
In the following hours, the news was confirmed by major international media outlets.
Iran executed a man on Saturday who it said was convicted of spying for Israel and having ties to Iranian opposition groups, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported.
Entangled in a decades-long shadow war with Israel, Iran has executed many people it accused of having links with Israel's intelligence service and facilitating its operations in the country.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group said on X that the man, whom it identified as 27-year-old architecture student Aghil Keshavarz, was sentenced to death on charges related to espionage for Israel "based on confessions extracted under torture".
The Iran-Israel conflict escalated into a war in June, when Israel struck various targets inside Iran, including through operations that relied on Mossad commandos being deployed deep inside the country.
Executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel have significantly increased this year, with multiple death sentences carried out in recent months.
In its report, Mizan described Keshavarz as an “agent of Mossad and the Israeli military,” accusing him of espionage, intelligence cooperation with Israel and photographing military and security sites.
Human rights organizations rejected the official narrative, saying Keshavarz was subjected to coercive interrogations. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported that he was tortured for a week in an IRGC intelligence detention center in Urmia to extract a forced confession, before being transferred to Evin Prison and later back to Urmia.
The execution triggered widespread condemnation on social media and renewed scrutiny of Iran’s use of capital punishment in security-related cases. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said at least 17 people have been executed in Iran since the start of 2025 on charges related to alleged cooperation with Israel, most of them after the recent war.
Iranian authorities have said more than 700 people were detained on suspicion of espionage or collaboration with Israel following the conflict.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-executes-man-accused-spying-israel-judiciarys-news-outlet-says-2025-12-20/
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid037Xstcyg7ogVxS6VXG4G2yBGKAWwcfyUaq9PzJHVJP4TZDfbgP9u2jxfYBx7NdLHnl&id=1543384355&sfnsn=scwspwa
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-executes-man-accused-of-spying-for-israel-3/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/20/iran-executes-man-accused-of-spying-for-israels-mossad-state-media
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202512200982
