Leading Iranian Journalist Expected To Be Executed

A leading Iranian journalist convicted of espionage will be executed soon, newspapers reported Sunday.

The hard-line Jomhuri Islami daily said Iran’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence of Morteza Firoozi, former editor of the English-language Iran News. The report did not say when the court ruled.

Firoozi was convicted of spying for three unidentified countries, the paper said. Sources said earlier he was accused of spying for the United States.

Qods, another hard-line newspaper, quoted sources as saying that his execution was “imminent.”

Firoozi, 40, has been jailed since May.

Little is known of the allegations against Firoozi, a prominent but noncontroversial figure in Iranian journalism.