Iran executes nuclear engineer accused of spying for Israel - rights group

The 39-year-old Iranian political activist said he was tortured and nearly killed by other migrants after being recognized for wearing a T-shirt with the Israeli flag and advocating for a pro-Israel rally while living in refugee camp in Northern Greece.

“I curse myself a thousand times a day,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t run away and died right then and there so I wouldn’t have to endure all this pain now.”

Ramezanipour said the refugees, whose nationality he withheld to guard against reprisals, shot him in the leg and held him down as they dripped molten plastic on his stomach.

A mechanic by trade, he fled Iran in 2016 after years of activism alongside reformist figures such as Mohammad Nourizad and later volunteered for a Persian-language Israeli radio outlet in Turkey.

'Admirer of Israel'

Ramezanipour spoke to Iran International from hiding, saying he still fears his attackers could find him.

His ordeal, he said, began after he fled Turkey in 2023, where members of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group which opposes migration had threatened him.

Transferred to the Kavala refugee camp in northern Greece, he said he saw anti-Israel slogans scrawled on the walls and campaigns in the city supporting Hamas for several months recently.

Ramezanipour said he has long admired the arch-foe of the Iranian theocratic rulers he had fled, saying many in the region had been "brainwashed" against Israel.

The devastating Israeli ground incursion into Gaza which local medics say killed over 67,000 people after Hamas attacks on Israel killed over 1,200 Israelis and captured over 200 others has stoked sharp criticism of Israel, especially in the Muslim world.

“I decided to get an Israeli flag and enter the camp with it,” he recalled. “At first no one bothered me, but when the camp director saw me, he ordered the security guards to take it away. I refused.”

The next day, he was summoned and forced to hand it over. “The director even threatened me, saying that either I would leave the camp or he would — that there wasn’t room for both of us,” he said.

Tens of thousands of asylum seekers languish in semi-lawless camps in and around Europe hoping to achieve safety and prosperity outside their homelands.

Western immigration authorities typically favor asylum applicants who are able to demonstrate they face plausible harm for their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, political views or activism.

Pro-Israel rally bid in Greek refugee camp

Iran International has reviewed the paperwork Ramezanipour filed to local Greek authorities requesting official permission to hold a public rally near the refugee camp in late July. The rally never materialized.

The network has also examined medical documents confirming that he sustained second- and third-degree burns with severe infection risk and signs of torture, as well as a Serbian police report showing that misdemeanor charges against him for illegal residency were dropped due to his cooperation with authorities and the circumstances of his case.

The documents did not elaborate on the alleged attack, perpetrators or potential motives.

Iran International has additionally seen photos and videos provided by Ramezanipour showing his current condition and the poor state of the camp where he is living.

As threats against him intensified inside the camp, Ramezanipour decided to leave. He said unknown men had begun following him after his failed attempt to organize the rally.

“One night around two in the morning, a car stopped in front of me,” he recalled about the early hours of September 28. “A man claimed to be a police officer and asked for my ID. Then someone shouted, ‘Don’t let this bastard escape—catch him!’”

Fearing for his life, he fled Greece with the help of smugglers and crossed into Serbia. “I thought I was finally safe,” he said. But in the Serbian border town of Loznica, he was taken to an abandoned factory filled with other migrants.

'The same bastard'

Inside, one of the men pulled out a phone, looked at a photo, then at him. “It was the picture of me wearing the Israeli flag T-shirt,” he said. “He compared it to my face and told the others, ‘This is the same bastard.’”

“They tied my hands behind my back and stuffed a cloth into my mouth,” he said. “They melted plastic and poured it on my body. They shot me in the thigh."

Ramezanipour eventually got help from local villagers who called the police.

“The police were kind” he said.

Ramezanipour said he identified four of the fifteen men who attacked him. Police told him the suspects had fled to Bosnia, but one officer later confided that Serbian and Bosnian police “don’t have good relations,” making arrests unlikely.

Mahshid Nazemi, an advocate with the refugee network Iran House, said Ramezanipour reached out to her through refugee contacts seeking help.

“Many of them find us when they have nowhere else to turn,” she said. “His wounds are infected and he’s in constant pain. He can’t walk without help, and he lives in fear they’ll find him again," Nazemi told Iran International.

She said his story is one of many that show the dangers refugees face in Europe. “Refugees are beaten, raped and pushed back across borders,” she said. “When they drown, Turkey blames Greece and Greece blames Turkey. No one takes responsibility.”

From his camp in Serbia, Ramezanipour says he still wakes at night, reliving the pain and fearing his attackers will find him again.

“The Baha'i sect has an unbreakable bond with Zionism. Don’t be fooled by their Iranian origins,” Ali Shirazi said in a television program later shared on social media on Tuesday.

“Baha'i and Israel are one and the same, not two separate entities at all.”

The remarks came a day after the Baha’i International Community raised concerns about intensifying crackdown on members of the faith inside Iran, including what it called coordinated operations in at least six provinces.

“At least 22 Bahais had their homes and businesses subjected to invasive searches, threats, and interrogations," the group posted on X Monday. "Agents confiscated personal belongings and electronic devices, sealed workplaces, and arrested or detained individuals in unknown locations.”

'Baseless hate-mongering'

A spokesperson for the Baha'i International Community condemned the anti-Bahai commentary on Iran's state TV, saying they reflect the deep-seated hostility of Iranian authorities.

“When examining the historical backdrop of such hate-mongering, it has always taken different directions in different eras. At times, Baha'is have been labeled spies; when nationalist sentiments were strong, they were called anti-nationalist; elsewhere, anti-religious,” said Vesaq Sanaei, the community’s spokesperson in Sydney, in a phone interview with Iran International on Wednesday.

“Interestingly, the constant shifting of direction, topic, and examples shows there's no foundation beyond hate-mongering—its sole aim is to divide people. This is well-precedented, and unfortunately, it’s being pursued in various forms across multiple platforms,” Sanaei added.

Baha'i activist and filmmaker Sepehr Atefi also responded to the video on Wednesday, calling on Iranians to stand in solidarity with the Baha'i minority.

“Everything points to the Islamic Republic’s serious resolve to destroy Iran’s Baha'i community through repression, imprisonment, and economic pressure, using the same false, outdated accusations that lack any evidence,” Atefi posted on X.

“Today, more than ever, we need the solidarity of the entire Iranian society with Baha'is in Iran,” he added.

Asked whether a commentator’s speech on state television carries the same weight as that of an official, Sanaei said the platform legitimizes such messaging.

“When an official platform is given to someone who, without evidence, reason, or documentation, unleashes such volumes of lies and hate—and you see this at every level, even the highest, where ‘experts’ are invited or introduced to do the same—whether they hold office or not, it’s cause for concern,” he said.

“It justifies and normalizes oppression and suppression, erodes sensitivity to injustice and tyranny, and—worst of all—harms Iran’s social cohesion,” Sanaei added.

Not recognized

Iran does not recognize the Baha'i Faith as an official religion, and its followers have faced persecution and prosecution since 1979. Accusations linking Baha'is to Israel are often used by authorities to portray them as hostile to the state.

The Baha'i Faith’s spiritual and administrative world center is located in Haifa and Acre, Israel, which includes sacred sites such as the Shrine of the Bab.

Iranian Baha'i community has faced systematic repression, arrests, and nearly 1,500 years in combined prison sentences over the past five years, US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on August.

The Baha'i Faith emerged in 19th-century Persia, challenging Islamic orthodoxy with its teachings on universal religion and progressive revelation.

In a rare declaration Wednesday, the unions—representing cinematographers, actors, production designers, sound recordists, editors, photographers and makeup artists—backed a statement issued a day earlier by the Iranian Film Directors Association condemning state censors.

“There is no justification for the existence of the Film Production Permit Council in today’s Iranian society,” the directors said in their statement. “Filmmakers will no longer seek approval from a body that judges their way of thinking.”

According to the state-run ISNA news agency, they called on Deputy Culture Minister for Cinema Raed Faridzadeh to disband the council and said their representatives would no longer participate in its meetings.

They also proposed that all film industry unions be represented in the separate body that grants screening permits after a film’s completion.

The call was backed on Wednesday by representatives of all trades, who said reform was essential in a “system of censorship that begins before a film is even made.”

Underscoring the challenges, It Was Just an Accident by auteur director Jafar Panahi went from being filmed Iran in secret to avoid censorship to a 2025 Oscar contender nominated by France, whose cinema industry participated in production.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and affiliated institutions such as the Farabi Cinema Foundation have exercised tight control over filmmaking—from script development and casting to posters and promotion—dictating even which actors’ images may appear in advertising.

Writers join in

On Wednesday, the Screenwriters Association joined the protest with a statement even more direct than the directors’ declaration.

Calling screenwriters “the first victims of censorship in Iranian cinema,” the group called for replacing the current system with a registration process that would not scrutinize content, allowing films to reflect life in contemporary Iran.

The screenwriters also urged the creation of a joint committee between the state and trade unions to rewrite filmmaking regulations and replace restrictive mechanisms with supportive frameworks.

Despite international acclaim for Iranian cinema, many filmmakers have been forced to work abroad to escape ideological controls, and some have faced prison upon returning home.

In March 2026, four Iranian films are expected to compete for the Academy Award for Best International Feature. Only one—Cause of Death: Unknown by Ali Zarnegar—represents the Islamic Republic.

The other three—It Was Just an Accident, The Things You Kill by Alireza Khatami, and Black Rabbit, White Rabbit by Shahram Mokri—have been nominated by France, Canada, and Tajikistan.

Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has recently come under public scrutiny in Iran after a leaked video showed his daughter’s lavish wedding featuring unveiled women, Western-style celebrations and his daughter the bride.

“You are the same person who, in January 1979 in Ahvaz, along with your accomplice Mohsen Rezaei, assassinated Malek Mohammad Boroujerdi, my father,” Boroujerdi wrote on Instagram on Monday, addressing Shamkhani.

Boroujerdi appeared on Iran International on Tuesday, elaborating on his accusations against senior Iranian officials, including Shamkhani and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Mohsen Rezaei.

“The Mansouron Group, formed in 1975 by figures such as Mohsen Rezaei, Shamkhani and others created a terrorist cell that carried out assassinations in Khuzestan province, including my father’s killing in the city of Ahvaz,” Boroujerdi said.

Mansouroun was one of seven Islamist groups active before the 1979 revolution that later joined together to form the core of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The group, led by figures including Mohsen Rezai, united with six others — Towhidi Saf, Towhidi Badr, Falagh, Ommat-e Vahida, Saheban-e Safa, and Mo’tahedin-e Eslam — to establish the force that became the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Ayatollah Khomeini had urged oil company employees to strike, aiming to cripple the Shah’s oil-dependent economy. My father opposed this strategy for toppling the Shah’s government," he added.

"As a member of oil company management, he and others were placed on an assassination list circulated in Ahvaz mosques and executed in January."

Mehrzad Boroujerdi is a professor of political science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and the author of the book ‘Iranian Intellectuals and the West.’

Shamkhani, a former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and now a member of the Expediency Council, has long been a key figure in Iran’s security establishment. He also serves as the Supreme Leader’s representative on the National Defense Council.

He and his family have come under intense criticism by dissidents for their apparent wealth and influence as many Iranians struggle with costs of living wrought by corruption, mismanagement and sanctions from Western foes of Tehran's policies.

Hossein, his son, has been described in a series of reports by Bloomberg as a key overseer of Iran's efforts to circumvent sanctions, enriching himself in the process. Shamkhani the younger has insisted he is a legitimate businessman.

“Over the past 45 years, most senior military and security positions in the Islamic Republic have been held by members of the Mansouron Group including Shamkhani, Rezaei, and Gholam Ali Rashid (who was killed in an Israeli attack),” Boroujerdi said.

The Mansouron Group was an Iranian guerrilla organization active in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily in Khuzestan province, opposing the Pahlavi regime through armed struggle and political activism.

Formed around 1969, it later merged with other militant groups and played a role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

In a detailed report released Wednesday, the firm accused MuddyWater of using compromised email accounts and legitimate internet tools to make its messages appear authentic.

“The incident underscores how state-backed threat actors continue to exploit trusted channels of communication to evade defenses and infiltrate high-value targets,” Group-IB said in a statement.

The attackers reportedly gained access to a corporate email account through NordVPN, a popular virtual private network service, and used it to send fake messages to multiple targets worldwide.

These emails contained malicious Microsoft Word attachments disguised as genuine correspondence.

When recipients opened the files, they were prompted to “enable content” — a step that secretly triggered harmful code. The code then installed malware known as the Phoenix backdoor, allowing the hackers to remotely control infected computers, collect data, and conduct further spying activities.

“By exploiting the trust and authority associated with legitimate correspondence, the campaign significantly increased its chances of deceiving recipients,” the firm added.

Group-IB said it linked the attack to MuddyWater with “high confidence,” based on the technical tools and methods used.

The Phoenix backdoor identified in this operation was version 4 of the malware, suggesting continued development by the group.

MuddyWater has been active since at least 2017 and is believed to operate under Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

The group has previously targeted government agencies, energy firms, and telecommunications companies across the Middle East, Europe and North America.