BritishIranian Alireza Akbari, 61, was hanged after being accused of spying for Britain by the Tehran regime
Jan 14, 2023 5:52 p.m
(updated at 6:38 p.m.)
BritishIranian Alireza Akbari, 61, was hanged after being accused of spying for Britain by the Tehran regime
Photo: Portal
This Saturday (14 January) Iran executed a BritishIranian who had been convicted of alleged spying for British secret services.
Alireza Akbari, 61, a former senior Iranian defense official, has been convicted of “corruption on Earth and attacking the country’s internal and external security by leaking intelligence information” to Britain, Iran’s Mizan Online news agency said on Saturday.
The execution by hanging took place three days after the death sentence was announced. Akbari has been accused by the Iranian regime of acting as a “key spy” for the British Secret Service (SIS), better known as MI6.
It was a “barbaric act” that “won’t go unanswered,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said after the execution. The British government “will summon the Iranian chargé d’affaires to express our displeasure,” Cleverly added.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted that the execution was “relentless and cowardly”, while Amnesty International called it a “cruel attack” by Iran on the “right to life”.
Shortly thereafter, the British executive said it had ordered sanctions against Iran’s Attorney General Mohammar Jafar Montazeri.
The Iranian government invited the British ambassador to Tehran to protest what it called “unconventional interventions” and condemned London’s “malicious support” of a “spy”.
France also condemned the execution “strongly,” according to a Foreign Ministry press release published on Saturday.
US diplomat Vedant Patel on Friday expressed Washington’s “grave concern” over reports that Akbari was “drugged, tortured” and “forced into false confessions” in police custody.
According to official Iranian media, Alireza Akbari has held senior positions in Iran’s security and defense apparatus.
This veteran of the IranIraq war (19801988) was, according to Irna News, deputy defense minister for foreign affairs, head of a unit in a ministerial research center and adviser to the commander of the navy, without giving dates.
Iran frequently announces the arrest of agents suspected of working for foreign intelligence agencies. Four people accused of collaborating with Israeli intelligence were executed in December.
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