Press TV- Iran has sentenced a 62-year-old man to a 10-year prison term on the charge of plotting against national security through acts of espionage, an Iranian judiciary official in the northeastern city of Mashhad says.
Hassan Heidari told IRNA on Monday that the man had beenarrested five months ago following investigations by intelligence officials. He addedthat the spy had collectedintelligencefor an Arab country.
Heidari added that the man was recruited by a foreign intelligence service on the pretext of obtaining a visa to attend the annual Hajj rituals in Saudi Arabia.
The convict had also carried out actsof espionage foranother country, he said but gave no more details.
The identityof the man has not been revealed.
Secretary of Irans Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei said in May 2016 that the country hadapprehended a number of terrorists tasked by Saudi Arabia with carrying out bombings inside the Islamic Republic.
The Saudis opened a consulate in Iraqs Arbil and had a number of terrorist groups enter into Iran to carry out explosions; they all have been arrested, he said, referring to the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan.
Saudi Arabia unilaterally severed its diplomatic ties with Iran in January lastyear after protests in front of its diplomatic premises in Tehran and Mashhad against the execution by Riyadh of notable Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.