ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s judiciary chief said Tuesday authorities will expedite the confiscation of properties of individuals accused of espionage to repair the damages incurred by the country’s recent war with the United States and Israel.
“The person who is Iranian on his ID card, but in reality is among the anti-Iranians of history, must pay the price for his association with the aggressor and his property must be seized and confiscated for the benefit of the nation,” Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said, as cited by the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
Ejei said measures have been taken to “expedite” redistributing confiscated wealth from “traitors” for “the benefit of the public and rebuilding infrastructure.”
Arrests and executions in Iran have surged since and after February 28, when the joint US-Israeli military campaign against the country started. At least 25 detainees and prisoners have been executed since the war, according to the Norway-based watchdog Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
Iran primarily resorts to the law of “Intensifying the Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries Against National Security and Interests” to launch the arrest campaigns and issue death penalties.
Enacted after the 12-Day War with Israel in June 2025, the law imposes the death penalty or property confiscation for individuals charged with participating in anti-government protests or communicating with Iran’s adversaries.
"People who cooperate with the enemy aggressor in any way, whether inside the country or abroad, should be assured that we will go after them in accordance with the law, and if the punishment of confiscation of property is legally applicable to them,” Ejei said in his Tuesday statement.
Washington and Tel Aviv struck around 17,000 sites across Iran during the war, causing significant damage estimated at $270 billion, according to official preliminary figures released in mid-April.