Iran hangs Israeli 'spy'
Agence France Presse
22-Nov-2008 (9 comments)

Iran has hanged an Iranian telecoms salesman convicted of spying for arch-enemy Israel, a senior official said on Saturday, warning that a "more serious intelligence war" had begun with the Jewish state.

"Ali Ashtari, who spied for the Zionist regime intelligence service (Mossad) was hanged on Monday November 17," the state news agency IRNA said, quoting the intelligence ministry's counter-espionage director, whose name was not given.

"He had spied for Mossad for three years," the official said, adding that "his espionage was so evident," that there had never been any hope of a successful appeal against the verdict.

Ashtari, 45, had been accused of involvement in a plot run by the Israeli secret services to intercept the communications of Iranian officials working in the military and its contested nuclear programme.

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News Goffer

Can we be sure he was really a spy?

by News Goffer on Sat Nov 22, 2008 07:38 AM PST

Certainly every state has a right and a duty to safeguard its and its people's security and safety.  If someone tries to undermine that security and endanger the lives of that nation, he or she must receive swift and fair treatment and punishment.

The problem we have with the news out of Iran is that we have long lost faith in the fairness and justice of the Islamic Republic's judicial and security systems.  It is lawless, subjective, and in many cases it has been purely criminal in treating its dissidents.  Dissidents are not spies.  Writers are not spies.  Students are not spies.  Yet, over the past 30 years many of them have been accused of espionage and "threatening" or "disrupting national security."  People have lost their lives over fake charges. 

Was Ali Ashtari a spy?  He may have been.  But I know that Saeidi Sirjani, Jafar Pouyandeh, Hossein Mokhtari, and Ali Taffazoli weren't. 



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Mehdi Mazloom

It all began with Granddaddy himself.

by Mehdi Mazloom on Mon Nov 24, 2008 05:42 PM PST

No suprise. if one examines the short history of this backward regime, it is easy to see that, deception, lies, and false promises had all begun with THE Grand sausage (Khomeini) himself.

True to his decadent "taaroff", Pretending to push Iran forward with civilazations - while in reality he was planning to (and did) take them backward.

He Promised them moon and the sun, while he was in exile in France. Freedom of expression, economic panacea, happiness ever after. Once in power, he delivered the exact opposite. Executed those who helped him into power. Instituted the the rigid and fundamentalist Islamic regime. Curtailed peoples freedom. As result took the glorious Iran and me'-latt-e Iran back at least 700 years. 

This regime just continues the legacy and the backwards legacy of Khomeini himself.

As others noted. If it ain't colored black, then it must be zionist spy. 


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xerxes you are funny!

by Anonymous Irani (not verified) on Mon Nov 24, 2008 04:08 PM PST

So what you are saying is that IRI can hang anybody without being accused of anything.Ali Ashtari may or may not have been a spy we do not know that,but many times people were persecuted in Iran just for speaking their minds.Political prisoners were executed under pretext of being enemy of God,being drug dealers and any other labels that IRI have ready to stick its citizens with.


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XerXes, you're wrong, we

by Khosrow (not verified) on Mon Nov 24, 2008 03:54 PM PST

XerXes, you're wrong, we dont't only blame IRI for the miserable condition Iran is in now, but we also blame people like YOU for it also. You and people like you, that unlike the Iranian people, are supporting this dispicible and brutal regime. You and people like you that represent 1% (If that!) of all Iranians but are betraying Iran by supporting the most hated regime in the world.


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Anonymous irani

by XerXes (not verified) on Mon Nov 24, 2008 04:14 AM PST

That's the opposition trick, to blame the Islamic Republic for anything and everything. The Islamic Republic did not need to call him an spy in order to hang him. He was and Israelis know it!
Some people in this site blame the IR even for their diarrhea


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Here is the trick?

by Anonymous irani (not verified) on Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:41 PM PST

IRI accuses someone that they dislike as an spy and tells the person that if he confesses on live TV to a fake crime his life would be spared.But as soon as he makes his confession it give the authorities a reason for his execution.Their logic is that look people he has confessed to his crime and he deserves to be executed.In regard to Ali Ashtari crime no one but him knows about his innocence or guilt.


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Let this be a lesson

by XerXes (not verified) on Sun Nov 23, 2008 08:14 AM PST

For those who betray the holy land or and its Aryan soil


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The Real Spy

by Dariushagha1 (not verified) on Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:57 PM PST

THE REAL SPY IS THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC THEMSELVES, OTHERWISE, HOW WOULD THEY KNOW HE WAS A SPY? THESE ARE NEW EXCUSES FOR ISLAMIC REPUBLIC TO KILL MORE PEOPLE WITHOUT HAVING TO ANSWER ANYONE. I BET THE ISRAEL ARE THINKING" HMMM, WE DON'T HAVE ANYONE BY THAT NAME "ALI ASHTARI" IN OUR PAYROLL, WHEN DID THAT HAPPENED"?


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Farhad Kashani

According to regime's

by Farhad Kashani on Sat Nov 22, 2008 04:22 PM PST

According to regime's definition, anyone who challenges the illegal rule of the IRI and anyone who seeks democracy and freedom in Iran, which means the vast majority of Iranians, are "Zionist and Imperialist Spies!".

I don't think they even believe in the accusations they make anymore, let alone the Iranian people and the world.


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