Iran executes translator accused of spying for CIA and Israel

Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, a translator accused of spying on the late Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, has been executed by the Iranian government.

Majd who worked as an English and Arabic language translator in Syria, was accused of spying for US and the Israeli Mossad. The judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported on Monday July 20;

“Mahmoud Mousavi Majd’s sentence was carried out on Monday morning over the charge of espionage so that the case of his betrayal to his country will be closed forever.

“His knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Syria’s geography made him close to Iranian military advisers and he took responsibilities in groups stationed from Idlib to Latakia.”

Last month, the judiciary said the translator who was arrested in 2018 had spied on former Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani. The case was however not connected to Soleimani’s killing in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport in January.

Judiciary’s spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said he was found guilty of receiving large sums of money from both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad to “reveal information on adviser convoys, military equipment, and communication systems, commanders and their movements, important geographical areas, codes, and passwords.”

Iranian state television showed footage of what it said was one of Majd’s CIA handlers, saying the alarm was raised after the interception of communications between the two. It also showed Majd in an apparent confession video saying he had received coded messages and reportedly met his handlers with documents, including “photos and identification documents of forces and commanders.”

The translator had migrated to Syria in the 1970s with his family and worked as an English and Arabic language translator at a company, Mizan said. When war broke out, he chose to stay in the country while his family left.