Two Mossad, CIA "spies" executed in Iran: state TV

TEHRAN, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Two Iranian spies working for the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad were hanged in Iran on Sunday morning, the state IRIB TV said.

Mohammad Heidari, one of the executed men, had prepared information in a number of security issues of the country and had given them to the Israeli Mossad in several meetings outside of the country, said the report.

Heidari received money in return for the information he had availed to the Israeli Mossad, according to IRIB.

Another convicted man was, reportedly, Kourosh Ahmadi, who also had links with the CIA elements, collected information about Iran in a number of areas and gave them to the CIA.

In the past years, Iranian security and judiciary officials occasionally said that they had arrested locals and non-locals linked to several Israeli and U.S. spying networks.

In 2009, Iran detained three U.S. hikers for illegally entering Iran and espionage charges. The female hiker, Sarah Shourd, was freed in 2010 on a bail of 500,000 U.S. dollars, and the other two, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were released in September 2011, also on a bail of 500,000 U.S. dollars each.

In May 2012, an Iranian court sentenced 13 people found guilty of involvement in espionage activities for the Israeli intelligence agency, said Iranian media.

Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolution Court stated that the convicts had been lured into spying for the Mossad by overseas-based satellite television networks and clever advertisement campaigns.

In the month, the Islamic republic hanged an Iranian man convicted of assassinating an Iranian nuclear physicist. Iran accused Israel of assassinating its nuclear scientists, and blamed the United States for being behind the terror acts against Iranian scholars.

In December 2011, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory, warning its citizens who intended to travel abroad against falling into "traps" set by Western intelligence organizations.

The ministry advised all citizens who intended to travel abroad to refuse financial, job, trade, residential, citizenship offers and other tempting offers made by strangers, and consult lawyers or Iran's embassies abroad.

Earlier in November 2011, Zohre Elahian, an Iranian lawmaker, said that Iran had been surrounded by Western spying centers near its borders in neighboring countries.

The espionage bases were tasked with organizing terrorist actions and intelligence operations against Iran and its citizens, said Elahian.