Did Iran Execute Nuclear Facility Workers Over Stuxnet?

Political Site Says Iran May Have Executed Nuclear Staffers over Stuxnet

Rumors are circulating that Iran may have executed a number of scientists and technicians working at nuclear facilities in the country after accusing them of helping to spread the Stuxnet malware in its systems.

Iran has held the top spot as far as global infection rates of the complex malware that targets SCADA systems that monitor and control industrial processes, such as those in nuclear power plants, or other industrial facilities.

Iran Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi recently admitted that a number of “nuclear spies” were arrested, in the wake of widespread reports of Stuxnet infecting the country’s nuclear facilities, though the arrests were not officially linked to the Stuxnet worm, officials said.

According to DEBKAfile, a site that covers politics, espionage and security, “Intelligence sources report information reaching the West in the past week that Iran has put to death a number of atomic scientists and technicians suspected of helping plant the Stuxnet virus in its nuclear program.”

Espionage is something punishable by execution in Iran, though the country signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids executing child offenders for crimes committed under the age of 18. Any workers in these facilities are likely over the age of 18.

How credible are these claims of such executions? Not very. But DEBKAfile claims to have intelligence sources and facts to support their claim of the executions, but we have not seen any hard and credible evidence to support their claim.

Related Reading: Stuxnet Sux or Stuxnet Success Story?

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