ALBAWABA - On Saturday, Iran's courts said that 20 people were arrested on suspicion of working for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency over the past few months. They promised to take strong action against spying.
Asghar Jahangir, a spokesman for the judiciary, told reporters in Tehran that some of the suspects had their charges dropped and were freed, but he did not say how many.
"The courts will not be soft on spies and agents of the Zionist regime," Jahangir said, adding that everyone who was found guilty would get harsh punishments to show others not to do the same. Once the reviews are over, all the information will be made public.
The news comes just a few days after Iranian state media claimed that nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi had been put to death. Vadi had been found guilty of spying for Israel and giving information about another nuclear scientist who had been killed in Israeli attacks on Iran in June.
This year, Iran has dramatically increased the number of people put to death for spying. In the last few months, at least eight people accused of working with Israel have been put to death.
Israeli warplanes attacked Iran from the air for 12 days in June, hitting military leaders, nuclear scientists, nuclear sites, and towns and cities. In response, Tehran fired a lot of rockets and drones at Israeli land.
An organization called HRANA says that the Israeli attacks killed 1,190 people in Iran. Of these, 436 were civilians and 435 were security forces members. Israel said that Iran's revenge strikes killed 28 people.
The arrests and killings show that the military and intelligence conflict between Iran and Israel is getting worse. They also show that Iran is serious about stopping what it calls "Israeli infiltration."
