Iran sentences a ‘CIA spy’ to death for passing details of its nuclear program to the US

• Iran’s judiciary announced today it has sentenced an alleged US spy to death
• Spokesman claimed the spy was passing details of it nuclear program to the CIA
• Amir Rahimpour alleged to have received money to share information with US 
• It comes as two charity workers were jailed for allegedly spying for CIA on Iran

Iran said it has sentenced one of its nationals to death for spying on its nuclear program for the CIA.

A judiciary spokesman confirmed today that an Iranian man has been handed the sentence for passing on information about Iran’s nuclear capabilities to the US.  

Iran said its top court confirmed the death sentence for an Iranian man convicted of spying for the CIA.

State media alleged he had shared details of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program with the American spy agency.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili identified the purported spy as Amir Rahimpour and said he would be executed soon. 

Esmaili did not elaborate on what Rahimpour was accused of doing, nor on his age or background. State media did not immediately name Rahimpour’s lawyer.

However, a report by the state-run IRNA news agency alleged that Rahimpour received money from the CIA to share details of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (center) and the head of Iran nuclear technology organisation Ali Akbar Salehi inspecting nuclear technology in April last year

Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili confirmed today that an Iranian man had been sentenced to death by the Republic’s top court for allegedly spying for the CIA

Gholamhossein Esmaili said, according to Fars news agency: ‘Amir Rahimpour who was a CIA spy and got big pay and tried to present part of Iran’s nuclear information to the American service had been tried and sentenced to death and recently the supreme court upheld his sentence and you will see it carried out soon.’

Rahimpour ‘had been identified and prosecuted and sentenced to death and recently, the country’s National Supreme Court confirmed the sentence and, God willing, he will be punish soon’. 

‘While being in touch with the spy agency, he earned a lot of money as wages as he tried to deliver some information from Iran’s nuclear program to the American agency,’ the IRNA report said.  

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The announcement comes as two charity workers were jailed on charges of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency.

In a separate statement today, Iran’s judiciary spokesman claimed both had been spying while using an NGO as a cover. 

Esmaili said two other alleged spies for the CIA each received 15-year prison sentences – 10 years for spying and five years for acting against national security charges. 

An Iranian security official in protective clothing walking through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan (file image)

Rouhani speaking during a cabinet meeting in Tehran earlier this month. Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili identified the purported spy as Amir Rahimpour and said today he would be executed soon

He added: ‘Two…CIA spies who were working under the cover of an organization and charitable foundation have been identified, tried and sentenced to ten years in prison for spying and five years in prison for acting against national security.’

The names of the individuals would not be released yet because the sentence has not been finalized, Esmaili told a press conference streamed live on the judiciary’s website. 

Iran in the past has sentenced alleged American and Israeli spies to death. The last such spy executed was Shahram Amiri, who defected to the US at the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. 

When he returned in 2010, he was welcomed with flowers by government leaders and even went on the Iranian talk-show circuit. Then he mysteriously disappeared.

He was hanged in August 2016, the same week that Tehran executed a group of militants and a year after Iran agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Tensions remain high between Iran and the US since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal. 

A US drone strike in January killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, a targeted killing that prompted Tehran to launch a retaliatory ballistic missile strike on Iraqi bases housing American troops.

Before the deal, a computer virus believed to be designed by the U.S. and Israel destroyed Iranian centrifuges. 

Meanwhile, Iranian nuclear scientists were targeted in a series of assassinations. 

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