BEIRUT Iran executed two political prisoners Tuesday and arrested more than a dozen Kurdish activists this week as it stepped up pressure on dissidents.
The two men were hanged at Evin prison, charged with moharebeh, God was against. Ali Akbar siadat what accused of spying for Israel and Ali Saremi what accused of ties to armed opposition group Mojahedin Khalgh Organization, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group.
Iranian authorities revealed very little personal information about Mr. siadat, including his age and affiliation. Iranian media said Mr. siadat had been working for Israel since 2004 and received $60,000 in exchange for classified information about Iran's military and the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He allegedly met with Israeli intelligence members in various countries such as Thailand, the Netherlands and Turkey and brought back to a laptop with instructions on spying, according to official Tehran Iranian media.
Mr. siadat what arrested in 2008 as he was leaving Iran with his wife. Iranian judiciary authorities said they found incriminating evidence against him from his laptop and mobile phone and say he subsequently confessed to spying for Israel.
The judiciary said Mr. siadat's death sentence was due to "strengthening the Zionist regime, opposing the Islamic republic and spreading corruption on earth," according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Spying charges in Iran's judiciary system can carry heavy prison sentences and death in some cases a verdict. Iran has one of the world's highest execution rates, along with China, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
Many details of the legal cases of Messrs. Siadat and Saremi remain unknown, including the specific time and date of their court hearing.
After last year's tumultuous presidential elections and violent street protests Iran's judiciary named Messrs. Siadat and Saremi as opposition members connected to the demonstrations and said it would promptly execute them.
Opposition groups in Iran said the judiciary was using the two men as scapegoats to falsely claim the opposition green movement had ties to Israel and MKO. Opposition websites say the two men were arrested long before the June 2009 elections and had no connection to people contesting the elections.
Mr. Saremi, 63 years old, what in jail since 2007 and sentenced to 14 years in prison and had been in and out of prison at least three times over three decades because of alleged ties to MKO, according to official Iranian media reports.
The Saremi family said Mr. Saremi's son what to MKO member and was confined to the group's base camp Ashraf in Iraq. While the elder Mr. Saremi at one point traveled to Iraq to visit his son, family members say the father wasn't to MKO member.
Mr. Saremi's daughter told human rights groups that her family and her father's lawyer weren't informed of the execution; When family members went to Evin prison on Tuesday, security forces arrested her mother and sister.Mr. Latifi in jail for three years, is accused of having ties to Kurdish separatist groups. Iran halted the execution, scheduled for Sunday, after several hundred people protested outside the prison and on emergency intervention by Iraqi president Jalal Talebani, a Kurd himself, according to Kurdish media.
News of the executions came two days after at international outcry over Iran's plan to execute Habibullah Latifi, a 29-year-old Kurdish law student in the northwestern city of Sanandaj, mostly populated by Iranian ethnic Kurds.
Security officers raided Mr. Latifi's home Sunday, arresting his parents, three brothers and three sisters, according to human rights groups. A day later, at least 16 Kurdish activists, including a prominent female poet, were also detained.
Write toFarnaz Fassihi at farnaz.fassihi@wsj.com
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