Iran Executes British-Iranian Dual National For Spying
Iran on Saturday said it executed a British-Iranian dual national after he was sentenced to death for spying for the United Kingdom, drawing strong condemnation from Britain and international rights groups.
Alireza Akbari, 61, was hanged after being convicted of “corruption on earth and harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence”, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. It did not say when or where the execution took place.
Mizan said Akbari, who had been arrested more than two years ago, had been a spy for Britain’s MI6 secret intelligence agency and had received around $2 million for his services.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “appalled” by the execution.
“This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people,” Sunak tweeted, adding his thoughts were with “Alireza’s friends and family”.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned on Twitter that the execution would not go unchallenged, before announcing sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general to underline Britain’s “disgust” at Akbari’s execution.
France’s foreign ministry condemned the execution “in the strongest terms” and said it cannot go “unanswered”, while President Emmanuel Macron denounced a “heinous and barbaric act”.
Iran summoned the British ambassador to protest what it described as “unconventional interventions”, after Britain said it would summon Tehran’s envoy.
News of the hanging came only hours after the United States had joined its ally Britain in calling for Iran not to go ahead with the execution.
US diplomat Vedant Patel said on Friday that Washington was greatly concerned by reports Akbari had been “drugged, tortured while in custody, interrogated for thousands of hours and forced to make false confessions”.
Follow Us on Facebook – @LadunLiadi; Instagram – @LadunLiadi; Twitter – @LadunLiadi; Youtube – @LadunLiadiTV for updates
