Iran seeks death for alleged Israeli spies

TEHRAN - A prosecutor said yesterday he would seek the death penalty for three Iranians who he said had been sent on a mission by Israeli intelligence to carry out assassinations and military sabotage in Iran, media reported.

It came three days after Iran's judiciary said an Iranian businessman convicted of spying on the military for Israel, the Islamic Republic's arch foe, had been executed.

"The mission of this team was to assassinate, bomb and kill some of the country's military scientists and also blow up the country's military, missile and important strategic bases," ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazevi as saying.

Iran's Al-Alam television station said the three accused spies were members of an alleged Israeli-linked network which Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday said they had broken up.

Mortazevi said that as the case was directly related to Israel, which he said was seen as hostile to Iran, "the prosecutor's office will request from the court the punishment of execution for all members of this network." ISNA described the detainees as "Mossad spies."

Mortazevi said they had received training both outside and inside Israel and that they had used sophisticated satellite and other equipment in their spying activities and for transferring information to the Mossad.

Tension between Iran and Israel have been running high in recent months amid speculation the Jewish state might attack Iranian nuclear facilities which it believes form part of a covert weapons program.