Deliberations on MK Limor Son Har-Melech's "death penalty for terrorists" bill commenced Monday morning before the National Security Committee under Chairman MK Zvika Fogel.

The Otzma Yehudit MKs' decision to come sporting noose-shaped lapel pins was supposed to show their determination to secure capital punishment for terrorists and conveying the message that "terrorists are condemned to die." The pin bears the same color as that worn over the past two years in solidarity with the Gaza hostages held by Hamas.

During the hearing, Ben-Gvir declared, "We all wore these pins, which represent one method we'll employ to carry out the terrorist death penalty statute. Naturally we have the guillotine option, the electric chair option, and lethal injection as well. Since reports emerged that physicians refused to participate in implementing the law, I've fielded 100 inquiries from doctors asking Itamar, just say when."

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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution for Randy Halprin, who had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 10. The appeals court ordered Halprin's case be sent back to the Dallas County court that convicted him, so it can review his claims that his trial judge was biased against him because he is Jewish.

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Halprin's attorneys are asking that he be granted a new trial.

"Today's decision to stay Randy Halprin's scheduled execution is a signal that bigotry and bias are unacceptable in the criminal justice system," Tivon Schardl, one of Halprin's attorneys, said in a statement.

Halprin was among the inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in December 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including the one in which they shot 29-year-old Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins 11 times, killing him.

The escaped inmates were arrested a month later in Colorado, ending a six-week manhunt. One of them killed himself as officers closed in and the other six, including Halprin, were convicted of killing Hawkins and sentenced to death. Four of the six who were convicted have since been executed.

Halprin's attorneys alleged in his appeal that friends and people who worked with ex-Judge Vickers Cunningham from Dallas County said he "did not like anyone not of his race, religion or creed" and used racial slurs and anti-Semitic language to refer to Halprin and some of the other "Texas 7" inmates who were convicted. Cunningham oversaw the trials of Halprin and other members of the gang.

The Dallas County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Halprin, declined comment Friday. Cunningham, now an attorney in Dallas, also wouldn't comment.

Cunningham faced allegations of bigotry last year after telling the Dallas Morning News he has a living trust that rewards his children for marrying straight, white Christians. Cunningham was running for county commissioner at the time, and he lost the Republican runoff days later.

Cunningham denied racial bigotry at the time of the Morning News interview. And he told the newspaper in June that the allegations made by Halprin's lawyers were "fabrications" from his estranged brother.

Halprin's attorneys said they only learned of Cunningham's alleged bias through the newspaper's reporting last year.

Halprin, who has maintained he never fired a weapon at the officer, was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which holds a person criminally responsible for the actions of another if they are engaged in a conspiracy.

He was the second death row inmate in Texas set for execution this month who got a stay this week. On Thursday, a judge halted the Oct. 16 execution of 60-year-old Randall Wayne Mays. He was condemned for a 2007 shootout at his home in East Texas' Henderson County that left two sheriff's deputies dead.

Mays' attorneys say he suffers from delusions and thinks Texas wants to execute him over a renewable energy design he believes he created. State District Judge Joe Clayton said he wanted time to review all submitted medical records in Mays' case.

The US Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled people but has given states some discretion to decide how to determine mental disability.

The next execution in Texas is set for Oct. 30.

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"The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do," Trump wrote on Twitter.

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Iran said it has arrested 17 Iranian nationals allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on the country's nuclear and military sites, and that some of them have already been sentenced to death.

The arrests took place over the past months and those taken into custody worked on "sensitive sites" in the country's military and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official told a press conference in Tehran.

He did not elaborate, say how many of them got the death sentence nor when the sentences were handed down.

The announcement comes as Iran's nuclear deal with world powers is unraveling and tensions have spiked in the Persian Gulf region. The crisis stems from Trump's decision to pull the United States out of Tehran's deal last year and intensify sanction on the country.

The Iranian official did not give his name but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran's Intelligence Ministry. Such a procedure is highly unusual in Iran; officials usually identify themselves at press conferences. It is also rare for intelligence officials to appear before the media.

The official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had "sophisticated training," had succeeded in their sabotage missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities they worked at, carrying out technical and intelligence activities and transferring and installing monitoring devices, he said.

The official further claimed the CIA had promised those arrested US visas or jobs in America and that some of the agents had turned and were now working with his department "against the US."

He also handed out a CD with a video recording of an alleged foreign female spy working for the CIA. The disc also included names of several US Embassy staff members in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe, and Austria who Iran claims were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed Iran's announcement that it had captured CIA spies.

"The Iranian regime has a long history of lying," Pompeo said in an interview on Fox News.

Occasionally, Iran announces detentions of spies it says are working for foreign countries, including the US and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former staff member of the Defense Ministry who was convicted of spying for the CIA.

In April, Iran said it uncovered 290 CIA spies both inside and outside the country over the past years.

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Iran said in August it had arrested "tens of spies" in state bodies, many of whom were dual nationals.

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In June, Iran said it executed a former contract employee of the defense ministry aerospace body on charges of spying for the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said an unspecified number of suspects, arrested less than a year ago, faced possible death sentences in military tribunals, state television reported.

"Two of the defendants, who were not military, have received long prison terms," Esmaili added, without giving details.

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The official said Sunday that the court sentenced Fadil Hamad Abdallah, 33, of Moroccan origin and Vianney Jamal Abdelqader, 29.

"There was sufficient evidence to hand down a death sentence. They both were fighters of the terrorist Islamic State organization," the prosecutor said of the convictions, which can be appealed.

The new sentences raise the number of French citizens sentenced to death over the past two weeks to nine, with another three suspects due to stand trial on Monday.

Those sentenced are among a group of 12 French citizens who were detained by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in neighboring Syria and handed over to Iraq in January.

French President Emmanuel Macron's government has said France respects Iraqi sovereignty, but opposes the death penalty.

Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France was intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent the executions of its citizens.

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