Iran says it will execute ‘CIA spy’ who helped US target drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani ‘very soon’
- Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd accused of being a ‘CIA and Mossad spy’ by Iran
- Justice ministry claims Majd gave US forces the location of General Soleimani
- Soleimani, Iran’s top military leader, was then killed in an American drone strike
- Majd has been sentenced to death and will be executed soon, officials added
Iran has vowed to execute a man accused of being a CIA and Mossad spy who fed US forces the location of General Soleimani before he was killed in a drone strike.
Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian national, accepted money from both US and Israeli intelligence services in return for handing over information on the Quds intelligence force and Soleimani’s whereabouts, Iran claims.
He was sentenced to death in recent days and the sentence will be carried out ‘very soon’, Iran’s Justice Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
Iran says it will execute Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, an Iranian national who they accuse of giving away the location of General Soleimani (pictured) before he was killed by a US drone
Soleimani, Iran’s top military leader who headed the Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike on Baghdad airport on January 3.
The strike fuelled fears of an all-out conflict between the US and Iran, after Tehran promised to enact revenge.
On January 8, Iran’s military fired a round of cruise missiles at a US airbase in Iraq, causing damage but failing to kill any American troops.
Iran called the move a ‘slap in the face’ and vowed to drive US forces out of the Middle East, but threats of an all-out war have since fizzled.
Little is known about Majd, whose identity had not been previously revealed.
It is thought he is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is how he was able to obtain information on Soleimani’s whereabouts.
Justice ministry officials gave no further information about him – such as when and why he allegedly began collaborating with the US and Israel.
Gholam Hossein Esmaili, Iran’s justice ministry spokesman, revealed Madj’s identity at a press conference on Tuesday before saying he would be executed ‘soon’
Madj is not the first person to be sentenced to death over Soleimani’s killing.
In February Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell information on Iran’s nuclear programme, was sentenced to die.
Tehran announced in December it had arrested eight people ‘linked to the CIA’ and involved in nationwide street protests that erupted the previous month over a surprise petrol price hike.
It also said in July 2019 that it had dismantled a CIA spy ring, arresting 17 suspects between March 2018 and March 2019 and sentencing some of them to death.
US President Donald Trump at the time dismissed the claim as ‘totally false’.