Iranian Man Executed for Spying for Israel

Iran executed a man accused of spying for Israel, the Iranian judiciary’s media outlet, Mizan, reported on Jan. 7.

The defendant was named as Ali Ardestani, who was found to have been working with the Mossad intelligence agency.

“According to existing documents and the defendant’s explicit confessions, Ali Ardestani, on the orders of Mossad officers, provided the service with images and photographs of specific locations and information on target subjects, and received amounts of money in the form of digital currency at the end of each mission,” Mizan reported.

Ardestani was found by the court to have communicated with Israeli agents both virtually and in person and provided Mossad with information, photographs, and video footage.

Ardestani was arrested after being identified while carrying out a mission for his handlers, Mizan reported. Under interrogation, Ardestani said his motivation for working with Mossad was “a million-dollar reward and a British visa.” He was executed by hanging.

Iran has executed other people that it has accused of having links with Israel’s intelligence service and facilitating its operations in the country, with at least 12 people put to death over such charges by Tehran in 2025, according to Iran International.

More than 700 people were detained on suspicion of espionage or collaboration with Israel following the conflict between the Jewish state and the Islamic republic in June.

Ardestani’s hanging comes as Iran is gripped by some of the biggest protests in years.

Beginning as a reaction to economic distress amid sanctions and the collapse of the Iranian currency, the protests have turned into mass demonstrations against the ruling regime, with calls for overthrowing the government.

In approximately one week, the protests evolved into one of the longest and most persistent episodes of unrest Iran has seen in the past few months, according to rights monitors.

Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw reported that at least 17 people have been killed since the protests began in late December 2025. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a network of Iranian rights activists, reported at least 16 deaths and 582 arrests. Iranian state media have acknowledged fatalities and arrests but have reported different figures.

The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify the numbers.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 4 warned Iran that the United States is prepared to respond with force if Iranian security forces escalate lethal violence against protesters.

“We’re watching it very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”

Trump also mentioned in a social media post on Jan. 2 that his administration would come to the aid of protesters if the Iranian government “violently kills peaceful protesters,” saying that the United States was “locked and loaded and ready to go,” without specifying what action Washington might take.

His warnings to Iran have taken on new weight after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran, on Jan. 3.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. action in a Jan. 3 post on X, calling it a “blatant violation of the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The ministry called on the U.N. Security Council to “immediately halt” what it called “the United States’ unlawful aggression against Venezuela.”

A foreign ministry spokesperson on Jan. 5 condemned the voicing of support from the United States for protesters in Iran, describing it as an “incitement to violence.”

Tom Ozimek and Shahrzad Ghanei contributed to this report.