Britain has described Iran’s execution of British-Iranian nationwide Alireza Akbari on espionage expenses as a “barbaric” act that won’t go unchallenged.
The hanging of Akbari, a former Iranian deputy protection minister sentenced to loss of life for spying for Britain in what critics have known as a “political” determination, was introduced by the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan information company on January 14. The report didn’t say when Akbari’s execution came about, though some experiences have indicated it could have been days in the past.
Akbari reportedly moved to Britain after he was briefly detained in Iran in 2008 and is believed to have been arrested in 2019 after returning to Iran. Few particulars have been launched about his case, as accusations of espionage and different crimes associated to nationwide safety in Iran are normally tried behind closed doorways.
Mizan reported on January 14 that Akbari was executed after being “sentenced to loss of life on expenses of corruption on Earth and intensive motion towards the nation’s inner and exterior safety via espionage for the British authorities’s intelligence service.”
The report additionally alleged that Akbari had obtained funds amounting to greater than $2 million for spying.
Iranian state media this week aired video it mentioned confirmed that Akbari performed a task within the 2020 assassination of one in every of Iran’s prime nuclear scientists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The video doesn’t present Akbari confessing to involvement within the killing, solely saying {that a} British agent had requested him for details about Fakhrizadeh. Tehran has blamed the assassination on Israel.
Akbari was sentenced to loss of life final week and Britain and america had known as on Iran to not perform the sentence.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, responding on Twitter to experiences that Akbari was hanged, on January 14 known as the execution “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their very own folks.”
Iran doesn’t acknowledge twin nationality for its residents.
British Overseas Secretary James Cleverly, in a January 14 tweet, wrote that “this barbaric act deserves condemnation within the strongest doable phrases. This won’t stand unchallenged.”
Iran’s Overseas Ministry introduced on the identical day that it had summoned Britain’s ambassador to Tehran to protest alleged acts towards Iran’s nationwide safety.
“In response to Britain’s unconventional interventions, together with within the nationwide safety discipline of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the moment, Simon Shercliff, the ambassador of this nation in Tehran, was summoned,” the ministry mentioned in a press release. “The British authorities needs to be held accountable for establishing unconventional communications resulting in an assault on [Iran’s] nationwide safety.”
The assertion added that the “British authorities should settle for the results of the accountability of constant its unorthodox and interventionist strategy.”
Akbari served as deputy to Iranian Protection Minister Ali Shamkhani from 1997 to 2005 as a part of the administration of reformist former President Mohammad Khatami. Akbari had beforehand been an adviser to the Iranian Navy and carried out the UN decision that ended the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq Conflict.
In an audio recording broadcast final week by BBC Persian, Akbari mentioned he confessed to crimes he didn’t commit whereas being tortured for months in detention.
“I used to be interrogated and tortured for over 3,500 hours in 10 months,” he mentioned. “All of that was recorded on digicam…. Through the use of the pressure of gun and making loss of life threats they made me confess to false and baseless claims.”
Within the video broadcast by Iran’s state information company IRNA on January 12, Akbari mentioned being requested in regards to the nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh by a British agent.
“They needed to learn about high-ranking officers relying on the key developments,” Akbari mentioned. “For instance, he [the agent] requested me whether or not Fakhrizadeh may very well be concerned in such and such tasks and I mentioned why not.”
The execution comes as relations between Iran and Britain have deteriorated in current months, with London criticizing Tehran’s crackdown on mass protests in Iran.
Outstanding Iranian lawyer Saeed Daehgan criticized Akbari’s loss of life sentence as “political” in a January 14 tweet. The lawyer, who’s believed to be dwelling overseas however has represented many instances involving twin nationals in Iran, recommended that it was associated to experiences that Britain is planning to formally declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, Reuters, dpa, and AP
