TEHRAN — Four Iranians accused of trying to overthrow the government with the backing of the United States have been convicted and sentenced to prison, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday. The four men, who have not been identified, had been arrested in Tehran on charges of plotting against the government, a judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, said Tuesday. He said they had gotten money directly from the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department from a budget that he said the Senate had approved for overthrowing Iran’s government. On Saturday, IRNA reported that a revolutionary court had sentenced the men but did not announce the length of their sentences. The report said the men had already been sent to prison.“They have stated clearly that they wanted to create distance between people and the government and show America as the only savior of the people,” the statement by the revolutionary court said, according to IRNA. “Based on the confessions of the defendants, they wanted to undermine the government and overthrow the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic,” it added.
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