DUBAI/LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Iran has executed a British-Iranian nationwide who as soon as served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary stated, defying calls from London and Washington for his launch after he was handed the dying sentence on fees of spying for Britain.
Britain, which had declared the case in opposition to Alireza Akbari politically motivated, condemned the execution, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime”.
Akbari, 61, was arrested in 2019.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan information company reported the execution with out saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had urged Iran to not observe by means of with the sentence.
Also condemned by the United States and France, the execution seems set to additional worsen Iran’s long-strained relations with the West, which have deteriorated since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit impasse and after Tehran unleashed a lethal crackdown on protesters final yr.
In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he stated he had confessed to crimes he had not dedicated after intensive torture.
“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government’s intelligence service … was executed,” Mizan stated.
The Mizan report accused Akbari of receiving funds of 1,805,000 euros ($1.95 million), 265,000 kilos ($323,989.00), and $50,000 for spying.
Cleverly stated in a press release the execution would “not stand unchallenged”. He later introduced Britain had summoned the Iranian Charge d’Affaires, imposed sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor basic, and quickly withdrawn its ambassador from Tehran for additional consultations.
It marks a uncommon case of the Islamic Republic executing a serving or former senior official. One of the final events was in 1984, when Iranian navy commander Bahram Afzali was executed after being accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
British statements on the case haven’t addressed the Iranian cost that Akbari spied for Britain.
Iran’s overseas ministry summoned the British ambassador over what it referred to as London’s “meddling in Iran’s national security realm”, the state information company IRNA reported.
Iranian state media, which have portrayed Akbari as an excellent spy, broadcast a video on Thursday which they stated confirmed he performed a task within the 2020 assassination of Iran’s prime nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in an assault exterior Tehran which authorities blamed on the time on Israel.
In the video, Akbari didn’t confess to involvement within the assassination however stated a British agent had requested for details about Fakhrizadeh.
Iran’s state media typically airs purported confessions by suspects in politically-charged circumstances.
Reuters couldn’t set up the authenticity of the state media video and audio, or when or the place they have been recorded.
Akbari was a detailed ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defence minister from 1997 to 2005. Akbari fought throughout the Iran-Iraq conflict within the Eighties as a member of the Revolutionary Guards.
Ramin Forghani, a nephew of Akbari, informed Reuters the execution had come as a shock.
“I don’t think a person who spent all his life, from an early age, to serve the country – since the Iran-Iraq war – would spy for any country,” he stated, noting Akbari had the rank of colonel within the Revolutionary Guards.
Speaking by cellphone from Luxembourg, he stated Akbari’s spouse, who lives in London, had tried however failed to influence Iranian officers to spare his life. Reuters was unable to achieve her.
‘DESPICABLE AND BARBARIC’
The U.S. State Department described the execution as politically motivated and unjust. The U.S. ambassador to London referred to as it “appalling and sickening”. French President Emmanuel Macron referred to as it a “despicable and barbaric act”.
Iran’s ties with the West have additionally been strained by its help for Russia in Ukraine, the place Western states say Moscow has used Iranian drones.
Along with different Western states, Britain, which has an extended historical past of fraught ties with Iran, has been fiercely crucial of Tehran’s crackdown on anti-government protests, sparked by the dying in custody of a younger Iranian-Kurdish girl in September.
Iran has issued dozens of dying sentences as half of the crackdown, executing not less than 4 folks.
A British minister stated on Thursday Britain was actively contemplating proscribing the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation however had not reached a closing determination.
In the recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari stated he had made false confessions attributable to torture.
“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness… and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats,” he stated.
Amnesty International stated the execution displayed once more Tehran’s “abhorrent assault on the right to life”. In Akbari’s case, “it is particularly horrific given the violations he revealed he was subjected to in prison”.
The Iranian authorities haven’t responded to accusations Akbari was tortured.
An Iranian state TV report – particulars of which Reuters couldn’t independently confirm – stated he was arrested on espionage fees in 2008 earlier than he was freed on bail and left Iran.
In an interview with BBC Persian broadcast on Friday, Akbari’s brother Mehdi stated he had returned to Iran in 2019 based mostly on an invite from Shamkhani.
($1 = 0.9235 euros)
($1 = 0.8179 kilos)
Reporting by Dubai newsroom, Michael Holden in London, Tassilo Hummel in Paris and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by William Mallard, Angus MacSwan, Tomasz Janowski and Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
