Erfan Shakourzadeh “was hanged for collaborating with U.S. intelligence services and the Mossad,” Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, wrote Mizan, the official publication of the Israeli judiciary.
Both based in Norway, the man was a student at the prestigious Tehran University of Science and Technology. Before his execution, the date of which was not disclosed, he wrote a message in which he rejected the charges, according to the non-governmental organizations Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR).
“Do not let another innocent life disappear in silence and without public attention,” he wrote, as quoted by those organizations.
The master’s student in aerospace engineering was “subjected to nine months of severe physical and psychological torture in solitary confinement to extract forced confessions,” Hengaw detailed.
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Shakourzadeh was accused of “deliberately” passing classified information to the CIA and Mossad while working at “one of the country’s scientific organizations active in the space sector,” according to Mizan.
The Islamic Republic has long been the target of accusations by Western countries, which suspect it of using its space program to develop ballistic missile capabilities. Arrests and executions have multiplied in Iran since the Israeli-U.S. attack on February 28, which triggered a regional war.
The IHR has recorded about 30 since that date: five executions for espionage, 13 for alleged links to the January protests, one related to the 2022 wave of protests, and 10 others for membership in banned opposition groups.
Iran is the country that most frequently uses the death penalty after China, according to human rights organizations, including Amnesty International (AI). Authorities executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, a record since 1989, according to recent reports by the IHR and the non-governmental organization Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM – Together Against the Death Penalty).
