On Monday, September 29, 2025, Iranian authorities executed Bahman Choobiasl, a man they accused of being one of the most significant spies for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. The execution, reported by Iran’s judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency, marks the latest in a series of executions tied to espionage charges and comes amid a period of heightened tension following a direct military conflict with Israel and the United States in June.
According to Mizan, Choobiasl was a database and telecommunications specialist who had broad access to government information through his work on sensitive national projects. Iranian authorities allege that he met with Mossad agents during foreign trips in recent years and provided information from Iranian data centers in exchange for money, equipment, and training. The report stated, “The main goal of Mossad in attracting the defendant’s cooperation was to obtain the database of governmental institutions and create a breach in Iranian data centres, along with which it also pursued other secondary goals, including investigating the route of importing electronic equipment.”
Despite the gravity of the charges, no public information about Choobiasl’s detention, trial proceedings, or sentencing was made available before the announcement of his execution. The secrecy surrounding the case is emblematic of Iran’s approach to espionage trials, which are often conducted behind closed doors, with defendants prevented from seeing or disputing the evidence against them. As CBS News noted, “Iran routinely conducts closed-door trials of people accused of espionage and other crimes, with defendants often prevented from seeing or disputing the evidence against them.”
The Supreme Court of Iran reportedly rejected Choobiasl’s appeal and confirmed the death sentence on charges of “corruption on earth,” a broad and severe charge often used in cases of alleged espionage and threats to national security. The execution was carried out swiftly, with no prior public notification or reporting of the case in Iranian state media, as activists monitoring human rights issues and the use of the death penalty in Iran pointed out.
Choobiasl is the tenth person to be executed in Iran on espionage charges since the 12-day war in June 2025 between Iran, Israel, and the United States. The conflict, which erupted into a direct confrontation, saw Israel launch 12 days of air attacks on Iranian targets, including strikes that reportedly killed at least 1,100 people, according to Amnesty International. The United States also carried out extensive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict, further escalating tensions in the region. Iran responded with barrages of missiles and drones, and has since intensified its crackdown on individuals accused of collaborating with foreign intelligence services.
Earlier in September, another man, Babak Shahbazi, was executed on similar charges of spying for Israel. However, activists have strongly disputed the legitimacy of Shahbazi’s conviction, alleging that he was tortured into making a false confession after writing a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offering to fight for Kyiv. Human rights organizations argue that such cases highlight systemic abuses within Iran’s justice system, where due process is routinely denied and confessions are often extracted under duress.
In the aftermath of the June conflict and ongoing domestic unrest, Iranian authorities have dramatically increased the pace of executions. According to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington, DC-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights in Iran, more than 1,000 people have been executed in the first nine months of 2025. They caution that the true number may be even higher, as Tehran does not report every execution. Amnesty International echoed these concerns, reporting similar figures and noting the alarming scale of the state’s use of the death penalty.
United Nations human rights experts issued a stern condemnation of Iran’s execution spree on Monday. In a statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, they declared, “The sheer scale of executions in Iran is staggering and represents a grave violation of the right to life. With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.”
The spike in executions comes against a backdrop of mounting domestic pressures. Over the past several years, Iran has witnessed repeated waves of nationwide protests fueled by anger over the country’s deteriorating economy, persistent inflation, and demands for women’s rights and political reform. Many of those sentenced to death in recent months have been accused of participating in these protests or of supporting calls for regime change.
Adding to Iran’s woes, United Nations sanctions were automatically reinstated on Sunday, September 28, 2025, after European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal triggered the “snapback” mechanism in response to alleged violations by Tehran. The sanctions freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals, and penalize the development of Iran’s ballistic missile program. The European Union followed suit on Monday, imposing its own set of sanctions. These measures come as Iran’s economy reels from a record low rial currency against the dollar, surging food prices, and growing hardship for ordinary citizens.
The renewed sanctions and the regime’s harsh response to perceived internal and external threats have deepened the sense of crisis within Iran. As Reuters reported, “Entangled in a decades-long shadow war with Israel, Iran has executed many individuals it accuses of having links with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and facilitating its operations in the country.” The June 2025 war marked an escalation in this shadow conflict, with Israel reportedly conducting operations deep inside Iran, including strikes on nuclear and military targets and the use of Mossad commandos.
For many Iranians, the combination of economic hardship, political repression, and the threat of renewed war with Israel has created a climate of fear and uncertainty. Human rights organizations warn that the state’s increasing reliance on executions—often carried out without transparency or due process—serves to intimidate dissent and silence criticism.
As the international community watches closely, the fate of those accused of espionage and other serious crimes in Iran remains precarious. The execution of Bahman Choobiasl, described by Mizan as “one of the most important spies for Israel in Iran,” underscores the regime’s determination to confront real and perceived threats with uncompromising force. Yet with over a thousand executions reported this year alone, and with the country facing renewed sanctions and deepening economic woes, the cost of this approach is being felt not only by those targeted by the state, but by Iranian society as a whole.
The story of Bahman Choobiasl’s execution is just one chapter in a much larger narrative of conflict, repression, and resilience in Iran—a nation at a crossroads, grappling with the consequences of war, isolation, and the relentless pursuit of security at any cost.
