Iranian news outlets reported that the government executed a former nuclear scientist who was arrested five years ago. The scientist was charged and convicted of spying for the US.
The Iranian government admitted that Shahram Amiri, a former scientist in the country’s nuclear program, was executed after being convicted of spying for the US, according to Iranian news outlets. Amiri was arrested about five years ago after he returned to Iran from the US.
According to several news reports, the Iranian Supreme Court confirmed Amiri’s sentence. The nuclear scientist’s mother said that her son’s body has rope marks around the neck, indicating that he was executed by hanging.
Amiri first disappeared in 2009 immediately after he left Iran to complete the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. According to some of the reports, he requested asylum in the country. He was next seen in the US in the beginning of 2010.
When he returned to Iran the same year, he claimed that he was abducted by the CIA and forced to provide his interrogators with information about Iran’s nuclear program.
The Americans claimed in response that Amiri defected from Iran and requested asylum after he supplied the CIA with vital information. About a year after he returned to Iran, he was arrested and imprisoned for treason.