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- Author, BBC PERSA
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The Iranian authorities carried out a wave of arrests and multiple executions of suspected people of having links with Israeli intelligence agencies, after the recent war between the two countries.
The facts occur after the authorities talked about an unprecedented infiltration in Iranian security services by Israeli agents.
The authorities suspect that the information provided to Israel influenced a series of high profile murders during the conflict.
This included selective deaths of high controls of the bodies of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (CGRI) and nuclear scientists, which will attribute to Mossad agents, the Israeli intelligence agency, who work within the country.
Shaking by the magnitude and precision of these murders, the authorities have been chasing anyone suspected of working with foreign intelligence, arguing that they do so for the good of national security.
However, many fear that this is also a way of silencing dissent and reinforcing control over the population.
During the 12 days of conflict, the Iranian authorities executed three people accused of spying for Israel.
On Wednesday, one day after the stop the fire, three other people were executed by similar positions.
Since then, the authorities announced the arrest of hundreds of suspects throughout the country accused of espionage.
State television broadcast alleged confessions of several detainees, who supposedly admit to having collaborated with Israeli intelligence.
Human Rights and Activists expressed concern about the latest events and cite the entrenched Iranian practice of extracting forced confessions and carrying out unfair judgments.
There are fears that more executions occur.
Image source, Getty Images
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry claims to be pouring a “relentless battle” against what it calls Western and Israeli intelligence networks, such as the CIA, the Mosad and the MI6.
According to the Fars news agency, affiliated with the CGRI, since the beginning of the Israeli attack against Iran on June 13, “the Israeli espionage network has become very active within the country.”
Fars reported that in the course of 12 days the Iranian intelligence and security forces arrested “more than 700 people linked to this network.”
Iranian citizens told Persian BBC that they received warning text messages from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence informing them that their telephone numbers had appeared on social media pages linked to Israel.
They were ordered to abandon those pages or face a judicial process.
The Iranian government has also intensified the pressure to journalists working for the media in Persian abroad, such as BBC Persa, Iran International and Manoto TV, based in London.
According to Iran International, the CGRI arrested the mother, the father and brother of one of their television presenters in Tehran to press it to resign due to the coverage of the channel over the conflict between Iran and Israel.
The presenter received a phone call from her father, after indications of security agents, urging her to resign and warning her of the consequences.
Image source, Getty Images
After the beginning of the conflict, the threats aimed at the Persian BBC journalists and their families have aggravated again.
According to affected journalists, Iranian security agents who contacted their families said that, in a context of war, it is justified to take their relatives as hostages.
They also described the journalists of “Mohabe” (which means “the one who frees a war against God”), an accusation that, according to Iranian legislation, can lead to the death penalty.
Manoto TV has reported similar incidents, including threats against employee families and demands to cut any relationship with the environment.
It was reported that some relatives were threatened with accusations such as “enmity against God” and espionage, both capital crimes according to Iranian legislation.
Analysts consider these tactics as part of a broader strategy to silence dissent and intimidate exiled journalists.
The security forces also arrested dozens of activists, writers and artists, in many cases without formal positions.
There are also reports of relatives of relatives of the deceased people during the anti -government protests that were carried out in 2022 called “Woman, life, freedom”.
These actions suggest a broader campaign aimed not only to current activists, but also to those who participated in previous dissent waves.
During the war with Israel the Iranian government severely restricted Internet access, and even after the stop the fire, total access has not yet been restored.
Limiting Internet access during crises, especially during national protests against the Government, has become a common practice in Iran.
In addition, most social networks such as Instagram, Telegram, X and YouTube, as well as news websites such as BBC Persa, have long blocked in Iran and cannot be accessed without using a virtual private network proxy service (VPN).
Defenders of human rights and political observers find similarities with the 1980s, when the Iranian authorities brutally suppressed political opposition during the war between Iran and Iraq.
Many fear that, after the weakening of Iran's international position after the conflict with Israel, the authorities will focus again on internal affairs, resorting to mass arrests, executions and a hard repression.
Critics point to the events of 1988, when according to human rights organizations thousands of political prisoners – many of them already fulfilling a sentence – were executed after brief and secret judgments in charge of the so -called “death commissions.”
Most of the victims were buried in unidentified common graves.
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