Iran on Monday executed a man convicted of spying for US and Israeli intelligence and helping to locate its top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike last January.

“Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd’s sentence was carried out on Monday morning over the charge of espionage so that the case of his betrayal to his country will be closed forever,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website reported.

Last month, the judiciary said Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd, who was arrested in 2018, had spied on former Revolutionary Guards commander Suleimani. The case, it said was not connected to Suleimani’s killing earlier this year.

In January 3, a US drone strike in Iraq killed Maj Gen Suleimani in Baghdad alongside Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, head of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. Washington had accused Maj Gen Suleimani, who was the leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, of masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US forces in the region.

The execution comes at a time when millions of Iranians have taken to social media to protest against the death sentences handed out to three men accused of participating in anti-government protests in Iran last November.

Their executions have been suspended, one of their attorneys, Babak Paknia, said on Sunday.

Rights activists said the sentences for the three men were aimed at intimidating future protesters.

The Farsi hashtag “don’t execute” was tweeted millions of times last week.