Iran says it will execute informant who led CIA to Soleimani

Published June 9, 2020
Iranian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest against the killing of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in front of United Nations office in Tehran, Iran. — Reuters/File
Iranian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest against the killing of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in front of United Nations office in Tehran, Iran. — Reuters/File

An Iranian citizen who provided information to United States and Israeli intelligence services on the whereabouts of Iran’s slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani will be executed soon, Iran’s judiciary said on Tuesday.

On January 3, a US drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US forces in the region.

“Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, one of the spies for CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and Mossad, has been sentenced to death. He gave the whereabouts of martyr Soleimani to our enemies,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said in a televised news conference.

Officials have not said whether Mousavi-Majd’s case is linked to Iran’s announcement last summer that it had captured 17 spies working for the CIA, some of whom it said were sentenced to death.

Soleimani’s killing led to a peak in confrontation between Iran and the US. Iran retaliated with a rocket attack on an Iraqi air base where US forces were stationed. Hours later, Iranian forces on high alert mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran.

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