The three suspects are accused of involvement in the murder of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and of spying for Israel.

Iran’s judiciary announced that three people were sentenced to death after the court found them guilty of spying for Israel and involvement in the murder of a top nuclear scientist.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died in November 2020 when his car was ambushed on a highway outside the capital.

“Preliminary legal proceedings were carried out in Urmia, where these people were sentenced to death; The case is currently under appeal, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said at a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

“After some investigations, it turned out that three of the eight people arrested in West Azerbaijan province were accused of spying for the occupying Israeli regime,” Jahangir said.

He added that the three were also “accused of transporting equipment to Iran for the assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh under the guise of smuggling alcoholic beverages.”

The decision came after a “comprehensive investigation”, the Iranian official said, adding that charges against the other four suspects were being reviewed.

Fakhrizadeh was widely viewed by Western intelligence as the mastermind of Iran’s covert efforts to develop nuclear weapons behind the guise of a civilian uranium enrichment program declared in the early 2000s; this claim was denied by Iran.

Iranian officials said the killing occurred when a satellite-controlled weapon using a sophisticated camera zoomed in on the scientist as he was driving outside the Iranian capital. Tehran blamed Israel for the assassination; Israel neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated after the war in Gaza started in October last year. The Islamic Republic supports a network of allies throughout the region, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which confront Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.

Regional rivals also engaged in direct conflict; Iran launched a bombardment of telegraphed missiles and drones on Israel in April in response to an airstrike widely attributed to Israel that killed senior Iranian officials in Damascus, Syria.

In October, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at targets in Israel in response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel responded with three waves of attacks targeting military targets in three Iranian provinces.