British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari has been executed in Iran. His family had been asked to visit him for a “final visit” on Wednesday and his wife reported that he had been moved to solitary confinement. Akbari, a former deputy Iranian defense minister, was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the execution a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime” and said that Iran’s rulers have “no respect for the human rights of their own people.” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also stated that the execution would “not stand unchallenged.”
Iran’s judiciary’s official news outlet, Mizan, reported on Saturday that Alireza Akbari had been hanged, without specifying the date of the execution. The news came after Iran posted a video of Akbari earlier this week that appeared to show forced confessions, and after the country’s intelligence ministry had described the British-Iranian as “one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran.” BBC Persian broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Akbari in which he said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.
The United States also joined calls for Iran not to execute Akbari, with US diplomat Vedant Patel stating that “his execution would be unconscionable” and condemning the charges against him as “politically motivated.” The UK Foreign Office had been supporting Akbari’s family and had repeatedly raised his case with Iranian authorities. It had requested urgent consular access, but Iran’s government does not recognize dual nationality for Iranians.
In Akbari’s audio message, he said that he was living abroad a few years ago when he was invited to visit Iran at the request of a top Iranian diplomat who was involved in nuclear talks with world powers. Once there, he said, he was accused of obtaining top secret intelligence from the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, “in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt.” Akbari alleged that he was “interrogated and tortured” by intelligence agents “for more than 3,500 hours.” He also accused Iran of seeking “to take revenge on the UK by executing me.”
Ties between the UK and Iran have deteriorated in recent months since the UK imposed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and other top security figures, in response to the country’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency in recent years, mostly on spying and national security charges. British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released and allowed to leave Iran last year after the UK settled a longstanding debt owed to Iran. However, at least two other British-Iranians remain in detention, including Morad Tahbaz, who also holds US citizenship.
