A group of supposed Israeli spies went on trial in Iran on Saturday. The group led by three people was charged with recruiting 60 Iranians and plotting against the government of the Islamic republic, said a judge as quoted by a local news agency.
The accused allegedly acted against Iran's security, collected
information transferring it outside the country and assisting
anti-religious establishments, Judge Dadkhoda Salari was quoted
on Saturday by the Mehr News Agency as saying.
Salari added that many of those charged confessed during
interrogation and many documents testifying to their guilt have
been confiscated. The judge provided no further details of the
trial.
Meanwhile, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported that
Iranian authorizes arrested four men for planning to sabotage nuclear
sites on October 6.
"Four of these individuals were caught red-handed and their
interrogations are ongoing," said the head of Iran’s Atomic
Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi as quoted by the agency.
Salehi did not elaborate on any of the details of the alleged
plot and it is not clear whether the arrests are connected with
each other.
There have been tensions between the two countries, including
disagreements over Iran’s nuclear program. Israel together with
the US and other Western countries accuse Iran of developing its
nuclear technology for military purposes. Iran denies the claims,
saying that its uranium enrichment program is being developed for
medicine and energy.
Since 2010 there have been a number of assassinations targeting
top Iranian scientists and experts in the nuclear and missile
fields. Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad is believed to be responsible for the attacks in
an alleged attempt to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Following the election of the new president Hassan Rouhani in
August, the international community has expressed hopes that the
Iranian-Israeli relations would enter a new era with a more
liberal political mindset as Rouhani pledged to take a “path
of moderation.”
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged to
“awaken from the illusion that has taken hold on some since
the elections in Iran.”
At the end of September, an Israeli court remanded in custody a
Belgian man of Iranian descent, Ali Mansouri, suspected of
spying for the Islamic republic and collecting
“intelligence for a possible terror attack.”