Iranian nuclear scientist accused of 'spying for US' hanged

Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who it accused of handing over "top secret" information to the United States, a judicial spokesperson said on Sunday.

"Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy (US)," Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie alleged, according to Mizan Online news site.

He did not say where or when the execution took place, but said Amiri's initial death sentence had been reviewed by an appeals court and that he had access to a lawyer.

"America was outsmarted, since he couldn't imagine that (Iranian) intelligence services knew what he was doing and how he was taken to Saudi Arabia," Ejeie said.

Amiri, who worked for a university affiliated to Iran's defence ministry, disappeared in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, and resurfaced a year later in the United States.

He then walked into the Iranian interests' section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home, where Iranian officials welcomed him, but there has been little information released since.

Last year, his father Asgar Amiri told the BBC's Farsi-language service that his son had been held at a secret site since coming home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while US officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear programme.

America was outsmarted, since he couldn't imagine that (Iranian) intelligence services knew what he was doing and how he was taken to Saudi Arabia. - Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie

US officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran's nuclear programme, though he left the country without the money.

Now, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. He had reportedly been hanged without any official word on his case.

"I am a simple researcher who was working in the university," Amiri said on his return to Tehran in July 2010. "I'm not involved in any confidential jobs. I had no classified information."

It is unclear what would have prompted Iranian authorities to execute Amiri, years after his first disappearance.

However, since the nuclear deal, hardliners within Iran's government have been increasingly targeting dual nationals for arrest in the country and cracking down on journalists, artists, human rights activists and others.

Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since 1980, when students stormed the US embassy following the 1979 Islamic revolution.