A judicial official in Iran has announced Monday that “several people” working for foreign intelligence organizations and opposition groups have been tried and their verdicts have been issued in the city of Kerman.
The head of the Revolutionary Court in the city said these cases were “examined”, presumably by the same court but did not mention the number of people convicted or their sentences, state-controlled ISNA news website reported.
On October 3, 2019 Fars news agency affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported that a plot was discovered in Kerman to assassinate former Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani. Citing the head of IRGC’s fearsome intelligence organization, Hossein Taeb, the report said three people working for “Hebrew-Arab” intelligence organizations were arrested.
Apparently, by using the term "Hebrew-Arab," the mid-ranking cleric meant Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The unidentified three were taken to "neighboring countries," for training and being prepared to assassinate Soleimani before the Fatemiyyeh Days, (January 20-February 9, 2019), Taeb claimed.
It is not certain that what the head of Kerman’s court announced today is the case of the same people arrested last year, but there have been no other important cases of people working as “elements of foreign intelligence organizations”, since last October.
"The mercenary terrorist team was to return to the country and blow up a place where Soleimani was supposed to be present for mourning ceremonies, using 300-500 kg of explosives," Taeb maintained.
Soleimani was born in a village near Kerman, eastern Iran and was buried there after he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in January.