Iran's Judiciary has indicted 14 people accused of involvement in the November 2020 assassination of prominent nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near the capital Tehran, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
Presented after his death as a deputy minister of defense who notably contributed to the "
anti-atomic defense
" of the country, Fakhrizadeh was killed on November 27, 2020 in an attack on his convoy near Tehran.
Israel targeted by Iran
"
In the case of the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, 14 people have been charged
," said Ali Salehi, Tehran's attorney general, quoted by the Tasnim agency, without specifying the identity of the accused.
The Iranian authorities accused Israel of having ordered this attack, perpetrated according to Tehran by means, among other things, of a machine gun controlled by satellite.
The Jewish state has not reacted to these accusations, but its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2018 that Fakhrizadeh was leading a secret nuclear weapons program, the existence of which Iran has always denied.
Mr. Salehi accused those charged in the case of "
complicity in corruption on earth
", "
espionage
" for the benefit of Israel, "
conspiracy to disturb national security
" and "
action against the security of state
”.
In December, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei awarded a prestigious military decoration posthumously to the slain nuclear physicist.
