Iran sentences 'Israel spy' to death
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has sentenced to death an Iranian telecoms salesman found guilty of spying for Israel, official media reported on Monday, in a rare move amid spiralling tensions between the archfoes.
"Ali Ashtari, 45, was convicted of being spy for Israel and was sentenced to death by the revolutionary court," the official IRNA news agency reported.
Ashtari was accused of involvement in a plot run by the Israeli secret services to intercept the communications of Iranian officials working in the military and its contested nuclear programme.
He still has time to appeal the verdict with a higher court.
"This is an initial verdict and should receive final approval. The defendant can appeal," the Fars news agency quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying.
"He fell into the trap of the foreign intelligence services. They took advantage of his situation. They asked him to cooperate and he cooperated," the Mehr news agency quoted an intelligence source as saying.
The verdict comes amid an intensifying war of words between Iran and its regional arch enemy Israel, which has never ruled out military action to halt Iran's nuclear drive which the West fears could be used to make the bomb.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is only aimed at producing electricity and angrily points to Israel's widely-believed status as the sole -- if undeclared -- nuclear weapons power in the Middle East region.
According to Ashtari's "confession", published in full by Fars, he sold telecoms equipment which sought to help the Israeli intelligence service Mossad access secret information from Iranian officials.
Mossad gave him 50,000 dollars to buy Internet cables and satellite phones and then sell them on to "special customers" in the hope of enabling Israel to spy on their communications, Ashtari said.
The intelligence official quoted by the Mehr news agency said Ashtari had contacts with the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization and military bodies.
"His action was definitely one of treason because some of our research projects have failed because of the use of this equipment," said the official.
"In some cases, failures are irreversible and big." The source did not give details about which projects had been affected.
State television broadcast pictures of Ashtari at his trial, showing a balding, rotund and surprisingly relaxed looking man. The pictures also showed the satellite phone, laptop and other equipment allegedly used in his work.
His handlers "introduced themselves as Jacques, Charles and Tony," Ashtari said.
"I had meetings in Thailand, Turkey and Switzerland with them. They gave me some equipment including a laptop through which I could send encrypted emails," he said.
They wanted "me to sell these terminals in Iran to my special customers so they could hack into this equipment.
"I am not sure what they intended to do as before I sold these to my customers, I was arrested," he added.
Trials against Iranians accused of spying for Israel are a rarity, despite the enmity between the two states.
The most prominent previous case came in 2000 when 10 Iranian Jews and two Muslims received jail terms of between four and 13 years on charges of working for an Israeli spy ring.
They were all subsequently freed but the case caused a considerable international outcry.
