Iran executes two men accused of planning attacks with Israel’s Mossad
Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi found guilty of collaborating with ‘hostile groups’ and receiving training abroad
Iran executed two men convicted of cooperating with Israel’s intelligence service and planning attacks inside the country, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan reported on Sunday, the latest in a string of executions since the outbreak of war with Israel and the United States.
Mizan said the two, identified as Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi, were accused of belonging to a spy network linked to the Mossad and had received training abroad, including in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
It did not say when they were arrested.
They were convicted on charges including “enmity against God” and collaboration with “hostile groups and the Zionist regime,” Mizan said.
Their death sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court before being carried out, Mizan added.
Iran has carried out multiple executions since the start of war with the United States and Israel on February 28, with strikes that killed the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. A fragile two-week ceasefire has been in place since April 8.
Execution of Two Security Defendants After Overnight Transfer Raises Fair Trial Concerns
Early this morning, Mohammad Masoum (Nima) Shahi and Hamed Validi were executed after being convicted on security-related charges, including alleged cooperation with Mossad.
The executions… pic.twitter.com/KCexIyIUO2
— Rojhelat Info (@RojhelatInfo_En) April 20, 2026
Iran is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups based outside the country.
Earlier this month, Iran’s hardline judiciary chief urged courts to speed up verdicts linked to the US-Israeli war, including capital punishment, as activists sounded the alarm about surging hangings of convicts seen as political prisoners.
“You need to speed up the issuing of sentences for executions and the confiscation of property,” judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei told a televised meeting of senior judiciary officials.
Using existing laws on punishing espionage, “it is necessary to continue issuing judicial verdicts for elements and agents of the aggressor enemy with greater speed,” he added.
Most of those executed are young men, including teens, alleged to have been either involved in the nationwide protests in January that were brutally suppressed by the regime — with thousands shot dead in the streets — or members of banned opposition groups.
Earlier this month, Iran executed a man named Ali Fahim convicted over an alleged attempt to storm a military facility and access an armory during unrest in January.
Iran has already executed three others linked to the incident.
Amnesty International has said that these executions have shown the judiciary to be “a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on those demanding fundamental political change.”
The Times of Israel Community.