ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Wednesday executed an individual who was allegedly trained by Mossad in Nepal and sold sensitive information to Israel, the judiciary said, amid a recent spike in executions linked to national security related charges.

Ehsan Afrashteh, aged around 32, had his death sentence carried out on Wednesday after being arrested in 2024 on espionage charges and held in the notorious Evin prison, with the judiciary’s Mizan Online website accusing him of being “a spy trained in Nepal by the Mossad and sold sensitive information to Israel.”

The judiciary accused Afrashteh of being a “cyber expert at a military-affiliated entity,” and becoming fluent in English, French, and Hebrew as part of his activities, working under the organizational name “Jams” for Israeli intelligence.

It also accused the individual of exchanging more than 300 messages with the Israeli operatives, in the form of emails and voice calls.

Following an “extensive” intelligence operation, Tehran’s security agencies allegedly detected suspicious activity, involving “unconventional financial growth, communication with Jews, efforts to teach Hebrew, buying and selling cryptocurrency through Southeast Asian exchanges, suspicious traffic and accommodation in Turkey and the UAE,” according to the judiciary.

Afrashteh holds a master’s degree in civil engineering, and is an IT and network specialist according to a reported by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), he is originally from Isfahan and had previously resided in Tehran.

Before his execution, an informed source told the rights watchdog that “forced confessions were obtained from him” by Iranian authorities, according to whom the confessions were “fabricated” as Afrashteh denied all charges.

Iran has a long history of broadcasting alleged confessions from detainees that are widely believed to be coerced, often obtained through threats, psychological pressure, and, in some cases, physical torture.

The country has witnessed a record high rate of executions recently with the US-Israeli war on Iran that started late February, and the nationwide January protests. Those executed are often accused of treason or posing a threat to national security.

According to HRANA, Iran reported that more than 240 forced confessions were broadcast during the January protests. Meanwhile, more than 20 individuals were executed since the onset of the war in the Middle East, the UN human rights office reported.

On Monday, Iran executed an aerospace researcher accused of being an agent of Israeli and American intelligence agencies, allegedly providing them classified information while working at a satellite field.