TEHRAN — Iran’s Judiciary said a man sentenced to death for spying for the CIA and Mossad on the whereabouts of martyr Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani had been arrested four months before the U.S. assassination of the top Iranian general.

The case of Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd has nothing to do with the American assassination of General Soleimani in Baghdad in early January, the Judiciary’s press office announced on Tuesday, according to Tasnim.

Mousavi-Majd was arrested months before that incident and the court had issued an initial ruling on his case on August 25, 2019, the Judiciary said, explaining that the convict has never been released from custody since apprehension.

Earlier on Tuesday, Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaeili announced that Mousavi-Majd was put on the death row for gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of General Soleimani.

“Recently, a person named Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, who had connections with Mossad and CIA and provided them with intelligence on security issues such as the Guards Quds Force and the location of martyr Qassem Soleimani in exchange for U.S. dollars was sentenced to death by the Revolution Court, and the verdict has been confirmed by the Supreme Court and will be implemented soon,” Esmaeili announced during a press conference.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes that killed General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), in Baghdad’s international airport.

Soleimani was recognized internationally as a legendary commander in the war against terrorist groups, especially Daesh (ISIS).

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a military airbase hosting U.S. forces in Iraq as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the terrorist attack.

Subsequently, Tehran warned the United States against any act of military action, asserting that the U.S. will face the “fiercest response” if it makes the slightest move against Iran.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran starts no war, but teaches lessons to those who do.

“Don't be misled by usual warmongers, again,” Zarif warned Trump.

MH/PA