Iran executes British-Iranian accused of spying, UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act

DUBAI/LONDON: Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary said, defying calls from London and Washington for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.

Britain, which had declared the case against 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 news agency reported the execution without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence.

The execution looks set to further worsen Iran’s long-strained relations with the West, which have deteriorated since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit 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 said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive 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 said.

The Mizan report accused Akbari of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros ($1.95 million), 265,000 pounds ($323,989.00), and $50,000 for spying.

Sunak said on Twitter he was “appalled by the execution”, saying Tehran had “no respect for the human rights of their own people”. Cleverly said in a statement it would “not stand unchallenged”, later announcing Britain had imposed sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general.

US Ambassador to London Jane Hartley called the execution “appalling and sickening”.

“The United States joins with the U.K. in condemning this barbaric act,” she wrote on Twitter.

British statements on the case have not addressed the Iranian charge that Akbari spied for Britain.

Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador on Saturday over what it called London’s “meddling in Iran’s national security realm”, the state news agency IRNA reported.