Iran Executes Aerospace Student for Espionage

Iranian authorities executed 29-year-old aerospace engineering student Erfan Shakourzadeh on Monday at dawn in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran, convicting him of espionage for the United States Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad.

Shakourzadeh, a top-ranked master's student at Iran's University of Science and Technology in Tehran, had been arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence in February 2025. Officials from Iran's judiciary, via its Mizan news agency, accused him of sharing classified satellite technology information from his workplace at a scientific organization. They claimed he contacted foreign intelligence in three stages and provided details on his access level, duties and other sensitive data. State media reported that his confessions would air on television that evening.

Rights groups, including Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Hengaw, described Shakourzadeh as an elite postgraduate who had earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tabriz before excelling in aerospace engineering. They said he endured nine months of severe physical and psychological torture in solitary confinement at Evin...