Iran hangs grad student accused of spying for the CIA

World Iran hangs grad student accused of spying for the CIA and Israel's intel agency May 11, 2026 / 8:03 AM EDT / CBS/AFP Add CBS News on Google Iranian authorities on Monday hanged a post-graduate student from an elite Tehran university on charges of espionage, the latest in a spate of executions against the backdrop of the war against the United States and Israel.Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, was hanged after being convicted for allegedly collaborating with the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence service, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website said.Norway-based rights groups Iran Human Rights and Hengaw said Shakourzadeh was a student at Tehran's prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology and had written a message before his execution rejecting the charges as fabricated.Describing him as an "elite student," IHR said he was held "in solitary confinement and subjected to torture and forced to give false confessions."According to Hengaw, Shakourzadeh wrote a note published from prison prior to his execution, saying: "I was arrested on fabricated espionage charges and, after eight and a half months of torture and solitary confinement, was forced into a false confession. Do not let another innocent life be taken in silence."He is the fifth person to be executed on espionage charges since the beginning of the war in late February.Authorities have also since then executed 13 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 10 accused of links to banned opposition groups, according to IHR. Rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran of using capital punishment as a tool to spread fear though society during times of international and domestic tension.Hengaw reported that Shakourzadeh, who was arrested in February 2025, was executed at dawn in the Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran after being suddenly transferred from the capital's Evin prison earlier this month.After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from the University...