The Iranian flag flutters in front of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna.
Heinz-Peter Bader | Reuters
Iran has executed Anglo-Iranian national Alireza Akbari, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported on Saturday, after sentenced Iran’s former deputy defense minister to death for spying for Britain.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said late Friday that Iran must not comply with the execution – a call echoed by the US State Department. He described the death sentence as politically motivated and called for his release.
Mizan said in a Tweet early Saturday that the sentence had been carried out but did not say when.
“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death for corruption on earth and acted extensively against the internal and external security of the country through espionage for the British government intelligence agency. .. was executed,” it said.
The report alleges Akbari, arrested in 2019, received 1,805,000 euros, £265,000 and $50,000 for espionage.
In an audio recording believed to be from Akbari and aired on Wednesday by BBC Persian, he said he had confessed to crimes he didn’t commit after being repeatedly tortured.
Iranian state media on Thursday broadcast a video it said showed Akbari played a role in the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack. outside of Tehran which the authorities blamed on Israel at the time.
In the video, Akbari does not admit to being involved in the assassination but says a British agent asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.
Iran’s state media often air purported confessions of suspects in political cases.
Reuters was unable to determine the authenticity of the video and audio from state media, nor when and where they were recorded.
London-Tehran relations has deteriorated in recent months as efforts to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear accord to which Britain is a party have stalled.
Britain also criticized the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests, caused by the death in custody of a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin in September.
A British foreign minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering the designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization but had not yet reached a final decision.
Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the suppress over the unrest, executed at least four people.
In the recording aired by BBC Persian, Akbari says he falsely pleaded guilty to torture.
“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, hallucinogens, and physiological and psychological pressure measures, they took my will. They pushed me to the brink of insanity… and forced me to must make false statements by force and threat to life,” he said.
Akbari is a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who served as defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.
