Iran Hangs Man for Killing Nuclear Scientist

Majid Jamali Fashi convicted in Masoud Ali Mohammadi's death
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 15, 2012 7:32 AM CDT
Updated May 15, 2012 8:14 AM CDT
Iran Hangs Man for Killing Nuclear Scientist
This undated file photo released by the semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency shows nuclear physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi.   (AP Photo/Fars News Agency)

Iran has hanged a man who was sentenced to death for the 2010 killing of a nuclear physicist, state TV reported today. Majid Jamali Fashi, who had been accused of being an agent of the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, was hanged in Tehran this morning. Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi was killed by a bomb-rigged motorcycle that exploded outside his house as he was leaving for work in January 2010. He had no publicly disclosed links to Iran's nuclear program.

Jamali Fashi, 24, was tried and convicted last August, and subsequently sentenced to death in Mohammadi's killing. His lawyer appealed the verdict but Iran's Supreme Court upheld the execution order issued by a lower court, paving the way for the hanging. During the trial, he was accused of cooperating with the Mossad, traveling to Israel to attend a Mossad training course, and receiving money from the Israeli intelligence service. Last year, Iran's state TV broadcast what it said were confessions by Jamali Fashi in which he admitted that he was recruited by the Mossad. (More Iran stories.)

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