Iran convicts two men of spying for Britain, Israel

June 20, 2014 06:42 pm | Updated 06:42 pm IST - TEHRAN, Iran

An Iranian court convicted two men on charges of spying for Britain and Israel and sentenced them to 10 and five years in prison, respectively, state television reported on Friday.

The report on the state television’s website quoted prosecutor Yadollah Movahhed in southeastern Kerman province, were both were tried, as saying that the man sentenced to 10 years had “exchanged information with four British intelligence operatives”.

Mr. Movahhed said the other man, arrested last August, passed on intelligence to a security officer at the Israeli embassy in Thailand.

Both men are believed to be Iranians but Mr. Movahhed did not provide their names. It was not known if the suspects had defence lawyers.

On Thursday, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that a court in Kerman province sentenced a group of already jailed cyber-activists to prison terms ranging from one to 11 years in prison on charges of breaching national security.

IRNA quoted Mr. Movahhed as saying those sentenced had ties with foreign media and were preparing to provide technical services for anti-government websites.

Iran occasionally says it has dismantled Western spying networks in the country and announces arrests of individuals on espionage charges.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.