Iran executes ‘Israeli spy’ for ‘writing letter on Microsoft Word’

 A father-of-two has been executed in Iran after being convicted of spying for Israel.

Babak Shahbazi was hanged in prison on Wednesday, according to activists who said he had been tortured into a false confession.

Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based campaign group, said the 44-year-old was detained after writing a letter on Microsoft Word to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, offering to fight in the Ukrainian military.

The group said: “Babak’s message to president Zelensky offering to help in the war against Russia was used as an example of espionage for Israel, who they claim taught Babak to use Microsoft Word.”

Iran’s Mizan News Agency identified the executed man as Mr Shahbazi. It claimed he had gathered and sold sensitive information about Iranian data centres and security installations to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

Ukraine did not immediately acknowledge the execution.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has been ramping up its “relentless battle” against what it claims are Western and Israeli intelligence networks, including the alleged involvement of the CIA, Mossad, and MI6, in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel in June.

Israel carried out more than 900 strikes during the conflict, targeting “the heart” of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Before the bombing campaign, called Operation Rising Lion, Iran had more than 440kg of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.

The Israeli onslaught is said to have decimated the upper echelons of the Iranian security forces, killing more than 1,100 people, including scores of senior commanders from the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and at least 12 senior nuclear scientists.

Mossad had reportedly deployed more than 100 foreign agents to infiltrate Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes through years of covert intelligence-gathering, providing key information on target locations, as well as smuggling in drone components and explosives before the attack.

Iran has hanged eight other people for espionage over the war.

Sentencing for those convicted of spying in the country is often opaque, with trials carried out by its Revolutionary Court behind closed doors.

Human rights groups have also accused Tehran of conducting arbitrary executions.