TEHRAN – Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili announced on Tuesday that authorities have arrested five Iranian nationals on charges of spying for Israel, Britain and Germany.

Talking to reporters at a regular weekly press briefing, Esmaeili said that two of the four arrested persons have been convicted and received final sentences.

Esmaeili stated a national named Shahram Shirkhani spied for British intelligence services and tried to recruit some Iranian officials for Britain’s MI6 agency. 

He added that Shirkhani had passed on classified information about Iran’s Central Bank and Defense Ministry contracts. 

Also, Masoud Mosaheb, who was secretary-general of the Iran-Austria friendship association, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for spying for Israel’s Mossad and the German intelligence services, the spokesman said.

He gave no details on the other three detainees, but indicated that they were working in state bodies.

“We had the arrests in the foreign, defense and energy ministries as well as in the Atomic Energy Organization,” Esmaili stated.

NA/PA