Tehran on Saturday said it executed a former senior defense ministry official who was a dual Iranian-British national, despite international pressure not to.
The execution further escalated tensions with the West amid nationwide anti-government protests shaking the Islamic Republic.
The hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a close ally of Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing power struggle within Iran’s theocracy as it tries to contain the demonstrations over the death in detention of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September last year. It also harkened back to the mass purges of the military that immediately followed Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Photo: REUTERS
Akbari’s hanging drew immediate anger from London, which along with the US and others has sanctioned Iran over the protests and the country supplying Russia with bomb-carrying drones, which it uses to target Ukraine.
“This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs James Cleverly summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK, temporarily withdrew Britain’s ambassador from Tehran and sanctioned Iran’s prosecutor-general.
Photo: AFP
Iran similarly summoned the British ambassador after the execution.
Iran said Akbari served as a source for the British Secret Intelligence Service.
A statement issued by Iran’s judiciary said that Akbari received large sums of money, his British citizenship and other help from London for providing information to the intelligence service.
Iran has in the past accused officials who travel abroad or have Western ties of spying, often using them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
Akbari, who ran a private think tank, is believed to have been arrested in 2019, but details of his case only emerged in the past few weeks. Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are usually tried behind closed doors.
The BBC Iranian-language service on Wednesday aired an audio recording from Akbari, in which he described being tortured.
“By using physiological and psychological methods, they broke my will, drove me to madness and forced me to do whatever they wanted,” Akbari said in the recording. “By the force of gun and death threats they made me confess to false and corrupt claims.”
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