Iran executes British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari for spying

Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who at the time served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary stated on Saturday, defying calls from London for his launch just after he was handed the dying sentence on prices of spying for Britain.

Britain, which experienced declared the case towards Alireza Akbari, 61, as politically motivated and identified as for his launch, condemned the execution.

Key Minister Rishi Sunak termed it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric routine with no regard for the human rights of their personal persons”.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency noted the execution early on Saturday, without indicating when it experienced taken position. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly experienced stated Iran will have to not observe via with the sentence – a simply call echoed by Washington.

The execution looks set to pile far more strain on Iran’s very long strained ties with the West which have deteriorated more due to the fact talks to revive its 2015 nuclear offer strike deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year.

In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he mentioned he experienced confessed to crimes he experienced not fully commited right after in depth torture.

“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on fees of corruption on earth and substantial action from the country’s inside and external safety by espionage for the British government’s intelligence service … was executed,” Mizan stated.The Mizan report accused Akbari, arrested in 2019, of getting payments of 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 kilos, and $50,000 for spying.

Sunak reported on Twitter he was “appalled by the execution”. Cleverly claimed in a assertion it would “not stand unchallenged”. “We will be summoning the Iranian Charge d’Affaires to make very clear our disgust at Iran’s actions.”

British statements on the case have not dealt with the Iranian cost that Akbari – who was arrested in 2019 – spied for Britain.

Iranian point out media broadcast a video clip on Thursday that they claimed confirmed that Akbari performed a part in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s prime nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside the house Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel.