TEHRAN: Iran announced on Tuesday that it will execute a man convicted of allegedly providing information to the U.S. and Israel about prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad in January.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili offered little information about the convicted man, beyond giving his name as Mahmoud Mousavi Majd.
However, it immediately raised questions about how Majd would have had access to Soleimani's travel information. Esmaili accused Majd of allegedly sharing security information on the Guard and its expeditionary unit, called the Quds, or Jerusalem, Force, which Soleimani commanded.
Majd was “linked to the CIA and the Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence agency, Esmaili alleged, without providing evidence. Neither intelligence agency could be immediately reached for comment.
Esmaili did not say when Majd would be executed, other than that it would be “soon.” He also stopped short of directly linking the information allegedly offered by Majd to Soleimani's death.
The Jan. 3 strike in Baghdad also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, and five others, including the militias' airport protocol officer, Mohammed Reda.
Iran later retaliated for Soleimani's killing with a ballistic missile strike targeting U.S. forces in Iraq. That same night, the Guard accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran, killing 176 people.