An Iranian court sentenced three Kurdish porters to death for smuggling in an Israeli robot weapon which killed a top nuclear scientist, with information obtained by Iran International indicating the cases relied on confessions extracted under torture.

The accused allegedly assisted in transporting weapon components for the assassination in November 2020 of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading figure in Iran’s nuclear program.

The senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official was killed by a vehicle-mounted robotic gun, in a complex operation likely carried out by Tehran's arch-nemesis Israel.

Iran’s judiciary announced last week the sentencing of three cross-border porters, called Kolbars in Kurdish, to death for unwittingly bringing in components of the weapon into Iran from neighboring Iraq.

The men were identified earlier this month as Edris Aali, Azad Shojaei, and Rasul Ahmad Mohammad, the latter being a Sulaymaniyah resident in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In July 2023, after initial trials in Fakhrizadeh’s case, Iranian security forces arrested the three in Sardasht. One of them, Aali, spent eight months in detention before being moved to Urmia Central Prison.

Shojaei confessed to smuggling weapon parts under torture, Iran International has learned. Mohammad, the third accused, was apprehended after investigators found his number on Aali’s phone.

Two sources in Sardasht in Western Iran, and a contact close to the families told Iran International that two other porters, Rahman Qanjeh and Khaled Elyasi, were detained one month after Fakhrizadeh’s assassination in November 2020.

Qanjeh, a father of three who smuggled alcohol for his livelihood, and Elyasi, a porter between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, were accused of unknowingly transporting robotic weapon components.

Both men later confessed under duress, information obtained by Iran International shows, leading to an 8-year prison sentence.

A former Iranian intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, acknowledged this week that the key perpetrators behind Fakhrizadeh’s killing had successfully fled the country.

He described intelligence operations that tracked suspects through Tehran, Arak, Hamedan, and Sanandaj before losing their trail in Saqqez.

"However, the case of (Mohsen) Fakhrizadeh was different. Everyone was identified. Nevertheless, we faced a vigilant enemy who, typically, would flee just half an hour before we could reach them,” added Alavi.

That admission appears to contradict the fresh death sentences related to the case for the Kurdish porters.

The November 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran initially appeared to be an armed ambush. However, it was later revealed that he was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun, smuggled into Iran in parts and assembled on-site. Israeli intelligence allegedly deployed artificial intelligence and facial recognition to execute the attack, which lasted just minutes.

In the operation's aftermath, Iranian authorities detained 20 individuals in Baneh near the Iraqi border, even showcasing photos of a suspected insider from Fakhrizadeh’s security team. Nevertheless, the intelligence minister’s admission of failure in apprehending the primary culprits has drawn criticism.

Activists accuse Tehran of scapegoating porters through forced confessions and harsh sentences to deflect attention from their intelligence failures.