Iran Says Executed Student Admitted Spying for CIA

Iran has executed another alleged spy, this time a 29-year-old grad student from one of Tehran's top tech schools. A website associated with Iran's judiciary said Erfan Shakourzadeh was hanged Monday after being convicted of passing satellite-related information to the CIA and Israel's Mossad, and that his alleged "confessions" would air on state TV. Rights groups Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Hengaw say Shakourzadeh, an aerospace engineering master's student at Iran University of Science and Technology, denied the accusations as fabricated in a message from prison, alleging he was tortured, per CBS News and AFP.

Shakourzadeh wrote that he was arrested in February 2025 "on fabricated espionage charges and, after eight and a half months of torture and solitary confinement, was forced into a false confession," according to Hengaw. He's the fifth person executed on espionage charges since the US and Israel went to war against Iran in late February, according to IHR. The group says authorities have also executed dozens of others tied to protests or opposition groups this year. Iran is the world's second most frequent executioner after China, with at least 1,639 executions in 2025 and at least 190 so far in 2026, rights monitors report.