Iran sentences three people to death for killing a nuclear scientist

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Iran has sentenced three people to death over the 2020 assassination of one of the country's top nuclear scientists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

“The trials of these three people were conducted at the Revolutionary Court of Urmia and they were sentenced to death at the initial stage and the case is currently in the appeal phase,” justice spokesman Asghar Jahangir said at a news conference in Tehran.

Fakhrizadeh was killed when his car was ambushed on a highway outside the capital in November 2020, in an attack that Iran blamed on its arch-enemy Israel.

“After some investigation, three out of eight people arrested in West Azerbaijan province were accused of committing espionage for the occupying regime of Israel,” Jahangir said.

He added that the three are also “accused of transporting equipment to Iran for the assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh under the pretext of smuggling alcoholic beverages.”

In December 2022, then-justice spokesman Massoud Setayeshi said nine people had been charged with the capital crime of “corruption on earth” for their alleged collaboration with Israel in the assassination.

Fakhrizadeh was under US sanctions at the time of his assassination over his role in Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian authorities said the attackers used a bomb and a remote-controlled machine gun.

Israel has never commented on the killing.

In 2018, the Israeli government accused Fakhrizadeh of leading Iranian efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, a claim that Iran has always vehemently denied.

pdm/kir