Iranian gets death sentence for spying for Israel
Washington, 30 June (IranVNC)—An Iranian court on Sunday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported today. The defendant, Ali Ashtari, can still appeal the verdict, which was handed down by Iran’s Revolution Court.
By: IranVNC
Published: Monday, June 30, 2008
15:22GMT—11:22AM/EST
IRAN – ISRAEL – SPYING
Washington, 30 June (IranVNC)—An Iranian court on Sunday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported today. The defendant, Ali Ashtari, can still appeal the verdict, which was handed down by Iran’s Revolution Court.
Ashtari, a 45-year-old resident of Tehran, is said to own an electronics company and shares in other companies, and has supplied technical and electronic equipment to Iranian military, security and defense centers, the report says.
According to the head of the Intelligence Ministry’s Counter-Intelligence Office, who remained unnamed, Ashtari passed information on Iran’s Research Center, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and other military and security centers to Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.
The unnamed official told ISNA that Ashtari had confessed to his dealings with Mossad at the time of his initial arrest, but said that the Intelligence Ministry was closely following his dealings.
“During the length of our investigation, we were aware of 90 percent of Ashtari’s collaboration [with Mossad], and with Ashtari’s confession, the remaining ten percent [of the file] was completed,” ISNA reported the unnamed official as saying. The official adds that at the time of Ashtari’s arrest 16 months ago, the Intelligence Ministry had been monitoring him for one year.
Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev, said that Israeli officials are unaware of the case, AP reported.
Source: ISNA, Associated Press
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