An Iranian court has sentenced three individuals convicted of assassinating nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020, to death by execution. 

Iranian Judiciary’s spokesperson, Asghar Jahangir, said that links were found tying the individuals to the assassination of Iran's top scientist, including the procurement of the equipment used to carry out the assassination, as well as spying and sharing information with the Israeli occupation, who has long been involved in hostile activities against Iranian scientists. 

Additionally, eight people were arrested in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan after Iranian authorities monitored "elements of espionage". Ten more were arrested and charged with aiding the terrorists convicted for the Taftan attack on October 26, in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was born in 1957 and was a leading scientist and the head of the Research and Development Organization at the Iranian Ministry of Defense, an organization responsible for developing weapons within the ministry.

He was also an IRGC officer, a professor of physics at Imam Hussein University in Tehran, and one of the country's top nuclear scientists.

In November 2020, Fakhrizadeh was shot and killed while inside his car, alongside his wife. According to a senior IRGC commander, a smart satellite-controlled machine gun using artificial intelligence had been used in the assassination attack.

Iran discovers Israeli involvement in the assassination

Shortly after his martyrdom, reports of the involvement of the Israeli Mossad circulated. In 2021, Iranian former diplomat and strategist Amir Mousavi told Al Mayadeen that terrorists from a Kurdish group cooperated with the US Harir Base and the Mossad to carry out this operation, noting that Tehran has previously warned both the Iraqi and Kurdish leaderships about the presence of terrorist groups on their lands.

Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was the first to confirm that a remote-operated machine gun was used in the assassination.

The former diplomat additionally divulged Iran’s success in thwarting two additional targeting of political and nuclear figures in the timeframe of Fakhrizadeh’s assassination.

This came after The New York Times revealed new details about the assassination of the prominent Iranian scientist, saying that it was carried out using an advanced high-tech AI-assisted weapon, equipped with multiple cameras operating via satellite.

In a lengthy report, the newspaper said that the Mossad and Israeli agents had been trying to target Fakhrizadeh for the past 14 years until they managed to assassinate him in November 2020.