After stern warnings from President Trump, Iran has made clear it is not executing any protesters in the wake of the raging demonstrations and deadly unrest across Iranian cities which took place and grabbed world headlines earlier this month.
Trump had earlier claimed that Iran was going to execute 800, a figure that Iranian officials immediately rejected and scoffed at. Indeed it’s unclear where the 800 number came from, and was probably floated by one of the anti-Tehran opposition groups based in Washington or Europe.
All of this back-and-forth aside, Tehran has made clear it will proceed with carrying out existent death row cases, especially related to the June 12-day war with Israel, during which time its security services rounded up dozens or possibly hundreds of Iranians alleged to be cooperating with Mossad or other foreign intelligence as assets.
So far some dozen people have been executed after being charged with espionage, connected to the events of last summer as well as its lead-up, and another one happened Wednesday, per international press reports and Iran state media:
Iran on Wednesday executed a man arrested in April 2025 on charges of spying for Israel’s espionage agency Mossad, the judiciary said.
Hamidreza Sabet Esmailpour, who had been convicted of passing information to a Mossad agent, was hanged at dawn, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.
Some in Washington and Tel Aviv might see this as a direct challenge to Trump, at a moment he has boasted of a “beautiful armada” parked in regional waters. He’s also freshly warned Iran that “time is running out.”
Still, Iran’s judiciary proceeded, confirming Wednesday in a statement: “Hamidreza Sabet Esmaeilipour who was arrested on 29 April 2025, was hanged for the crime of espionage and intelligence cooperation in favor of a hostile intelligence service (Mossad) through… the transfer of classified documents and information, after the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court and through legal procedures.”
The Islamic Republic likes to set examples, and so tends to widely publicize hangings like this, which is another reason why the prior referenced Trump claims of 800 set to be executed seems wildly exaggerated if not fabricated out of thin air.
Public executions have been a reality in Iran going all the way back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, in which time (and since) people could be seen hanging from cranes in the capital city.
Recently, it has become clear that Israel was engaged in a massive spying and espionage campaign to pave the way for its ‘Operation Rising Lion’ – which is intent on destroying Iran’s nuclear energy program, and possibly even accomplishing regime change. Some Israeli officials have actually publicly boasted of this.
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