An Iranian flag flutters in front of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna.
Heinz-Peter Bader | Reuters
Iran executed Alireza Akbari, a British-Iranian national, after it sentenced the former Iranian deputy defense minister to death on charges of spying for the United Kingdom, the Justice Department’s Mizan news agency reported on Saturday.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley said late Friday that Iran should not continue with executions – the US State Department made a similar call. Britain called for his release, explaining that the death sentence was politically motivated.
Mizan said in a tweet early Saturday that he did not specify when his sentence was served.
“Alireza Akbari, who has been sentenced to death on charges of global corruption and widespread actions against the national and international security through the British government’s intelligence service espionage, has been executed,” it said.
The report accused Akbari, who was arrested in 2019, of receiving €1,805,000, £265,000 and $50,000 for espionage.
In an audio recording purported to be from Akbari, which was broadcast on BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he confessed to a crime he did not commit after extensive torture.
Iranian state media broadcast a video on Thursday showing Akbari’s role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fahrizadeh, who was killed in an attack outside Tehran in 2020. said.
In the video, Akbari did not confess to any involvement in the assassination, but said British agents had asked for information about Fahrizadeh.
Iran’s state media often air alleged confessions by suspects in politically charged cases.
Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the state media video and audio or when and where they were recorded.
Relations between London and Tehran It has deteriorated in recent months as efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, to which the UK is a party, have stalled.
The UK has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests, in the wake of the September death of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in custody.
Britain’s foreign minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering banning Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, but had not reached a final decision.
Iran has handed down dozens of death sentences as part of that. control In the mayhem, at least four people were executed.
In an audio recording broadcast by the BBC Persian, Akbari said he made a false confession as a result of torture.
“With over 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, physiological and psychological coercion, they robbed me of my will. I insisted,” he said.
Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, who served as Defense Minister from 1997 to 2005 and is now head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.