Iran executes three men convicted of working for Israel and US

Iran executed three men on Sunday after they were convicted of carrying out operations for Israel and the ⁠US and taking part in armed unrest targeting the government in January, state media reported.

Iran has executed at least 35 people in recent months over the unrest, which it has said caused almost 3,000 deaths and widespread destruction of public property weeks before the US and Israel launched the ongoing war against the country.

Human rights groups have said at least half of the 70 executions reported in Iran so far this year were directly tied to the unrest.

The three men executed on Sunday were named Hassan ⁠Dioband, Hamid Kazemi and Reza Zanganeh.

They were convicted of using firearms, grenades and Molotov cocktails, setting fire to ‌public facilities and damaging ‌an electricity substation in the city of Karaj, causing power outages.

The judiciary said Dioband was arrested on 11 January after investigators identified him as a suspect in attacks on public property and incitement to violence. Ten other persons accused of participating in the unrest ‌under his supervision were subsequently arrested.

After a trial, a lower court sentenced three of them to death and ordered their assets confiscated. It handed down prison terms of five to 10 years to the other accused.

The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the sentences on appeal.