IRAN has executed a political prisoner accused of spying for Israel, despite his claims of being tortured into making a false confession.
Mohsen Langarneshin, 34, was hanged Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar near , the judiciary’s media centre confirmed.
The official IRNA agency described him as a “senior spy”; for ‘s Mossad, claiming he helped in the 2022 assassination of Revolutionary Guard Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei.
Langarneshin had repeatedly denied the charges, insisting he was forced into confessing under duress.
“In the interrogations, they put me under so much pressure,”; he said in a voice message from prison.
“They said they would arrest every member of my family and keep them until I no longer recognise them.”;
He also revealed he was threatened with “severe torture unless he confessed”; and later admitted – under pressure – to buying a motorbike with a camera and transporting explosives, allegations he insisted were fabricated.
Arrested on July 3, 2023, by security forces in Tehran, Langarneshin was initially held in a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse.
He had been among those detained in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests that rocked the country in 2022.
Tehran’s Revolutionary sentenced him to death on charges of “espionage for ,”; citing a case built by the Ministry of Intelligence.
The judiciary accused him of “supporting the assassination of a person named Sayyad Khodaei, facilitating attacks on a Defense Ministry-linked industrial site in Isfahan, and handling logistics, equipment, safehouses, and transfers for Mossad operatives.”;
Langarneshin’s family had pleaded for clemency outside Evin Prison as the execution approached.
His supporters pointed to confirmed alibis and a lack of evidence linking him to the crimes.
“The 34-year-old network security expert is convicted of alleged involvement in IRGC assassinations despite NO evidence and confirmed alibis,”; one source said.
Langarneshin was moved to solitary confinement earlier this week in a chilling sign of his looming execution, according to Iran International.
The Islamic Republic has consistently denied allegations of torture or wrongful imprisonment, despite decades of documented abuses against political detainees.
Rights groups have long condemned
stated in March: “The Islamic Republic has used televised confessions as a propaganda tool aimed at creating fear and justifying the heavy sentences handed down to its political opponents and activists since its inception in 1979.”;
“Such confessions are extracted after physical and/or psychological torture, lengthy solitary confinement, threats or promises of reduction in the gravity of sentences and threats against family members,”; the group added.
