Iran executes British-Iranian Alireza Akbari
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Saturday, Iranian authorities executed British-Iranian Alireza Akbari after sentencing him to death on charges of spying for Britain.
Iran’s judicial news agency said in a statement the British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari was sentenced to death on charges of “corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security.”
The sentence was implemented after obtaining the Supreme Court’s approval.
He was accused of receiving “hundreds of thousands of pounds” for providing intelligence to Britain – claims Akbari denied.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak described Iran’s sentence as a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime.”
He had been deputy defense minister under the reformist Mohammad Khatami, the president of Iran from 1997 to 2005.
He was close to Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the supreme national security council, and had been an advocate for the Iran nuclear deal that was eventually signed in 2015 between the west and Iran.
Several countries condemned the sentence and called for Akbari’s immediate release.
Relations between the UK and Iran have recently deteriorated after sanctions the UK imposed on Iran’s morality police and other top security figures, in response to the country’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by the death of the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September.
Akbari’s execution is the fifth since protests erupted in Iran, with dozens of other young men in detentions left probably to face the same sentence.