CNN —
A dual British-Iranian citizen has been hanged by Iran for espionage and corruption, a state-affiliated media outlet reported on Saturday, the latest in a string of executions carried out by a regime grappling with unprecedented protests across the country.
Iranian official Alireza Akbari was executed for crimes including “corruption on earth,” according to the Iranian justice-affiliated newspaper Mizan. Akbari has been accused of working as a spy for British intelligence agency MI6 and is said to have paid more than $2 million in various currencies – 1.805 million euros, 265,000 British pounds and $50,000, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “appalled at the execution”. He added on Twitter: “This was a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people. My thoughts are with Alireza’s friends and family.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Saturday afternoon that the British government plans to sanction Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri to “underline our disgust at the execution of Alireza Akbari”.
“The Attorney General is at the heart of Iran’s use of the death penalty. We hold the regime accountable for its appalling human rights abuses,” Cleverly said.
Akbari allegedly provided foreign officials with information on 178 Iranian figures, including the country’s chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iranian media reported. According to the state-affiliated Fars News, Fakhrizadeh was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun operating from a car in 2020. Iran’s top officials at the time accused Israel of directing the conspiracy without providing any evidence.
Akbari allegedly carried out his intelligence work through the facade of a private company focused on research and commercial activities, working directly with research institutes in London that Iran claimed were run by intelligence officials, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported. IRNA also cited allegations that Akbari had meetings with an MI6 intelligence officer and former British ambassador to Iran, Richard Dalton.
Iran’s Supreme Court upheld Akbari’s death sentence after finding it based on “reasonable evidence,” according to IRNA.
Mizan did not specify when the execution was carried out. Akbari’s death sentence was announced just days ago, on January 11, after being convicted of spying for the UK. Akbari had denied the allegations.
According to the allegations published in Mizan on Wednesday, Akbari was arrested “some time ago”. The BBC reported Akbari was arrested in 2019.
“On that basis, and after indictment of the defendant, the file was referred to the court and heard in the presence of the defendant’s lawyer and he was sentenced to death for espionage on the basis of the valid documents in that person’s file,” Mizan said.
Akbari was previously Iran’s deputy defense minister and head of the Strategic Research Institute, as well as a member of the military organization that implemented the United Nations resolution to end the Iran-Iraq war, according to Iran’s pro-reform newspaper Shargh Daily. According to the BBC, he served under Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, a reformer who held office from 1997 to 2005.
Though Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, the execution of a person with British citizenship is likely to further fuel tensions between Tehran and western democracies, which have criticized the regime’s response to anti-government demonstrations that began in September last year.
Iran has long been among the world’s top executioners, and Akbari is one of three people sentenced to death in the early weeks of 2023. Two young men, a karate champion and a volunteer child trainer, were hanged last weekend after being convicted of killing a member of the country’s paramilitary Basij force. Both had reportedly taken part in the protests, which began after a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, died in custody of the country’s vice squad.
Amini’s death sparked massive nationwide demonstrations against a regime often criticized as theocratic and dictatorial.
Critics accuse Tehran of responding to protests with excessive force — activist groups HRANA and Iran Human Rights say 481 protesters have been killed — and of using the country’s unfair justice system to intimidate would-be protesters. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk claimed that Tehran was “weaponizing” criminal procedures to carry out “state-sanctioned killings” of protesters.
Up to 41 other protesters have been sentenced to death in recent months, according to statements by both Iranian officials and Iranian media verified by CNN and 1500Tasvir, but the number could be much higher.
Iranian state media have reported that dozens of government agents, ranging from security guards to officers from the paramilitary Basij force, have been killed in the unrest.
Although Akbari’s execution was superficially unrelated to the recent protests, British Foreign Secretary Cleverly claimed the act was “politically motivated”. He said the Iranian chargé d’affaires was being subpoenaed for the execution “to express our outrage at Iran’s actions.”
“The execution of the British-Iranian Alireza Akbari is a barbaric act that must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Through this politically motivated act, the Iranian regime has once again demonstrated its callous disregard for human life,” Cleverly said on Twitter. “That will not go unchallenged.”
Cleverly also announced on Saturday that the UK had temporarily recalled its ambassador to Iran for “consultation” amid diplomatic spats in the wake of the execution.
Announcing the decision in a Twitter post, he said Britain “holds the regime accountable”.
“Our response to Iran is not limited to today,” Cleverly added.
The British government had urged Iran not to execute Akbari and the Foreign Office said it would continue to support his family.
The French government has also summoned the best Iranian diplomat in the country. French President Emmanuel Macron called Akbari’s execution an “abhorrent and barbaric act”.
“His name will be added to the long list of victims of repression and the death penalty in Iran,” Macron said in a tweet on Saturday.
Tehran summoned the British ambassador to Iran to protest the British government’s “recent acts of sabotage” and its “unconventional interference in Iran’s internal affairs”.
Amnesty International called Akbari’s execution “particularly appalling” and a “heinous attack on the right to life”. The rights group claimed Akbari said he was forcibly administered chemical substances, placed in prolonged solitary confinement and forced to make repeated recorded “confessions.”
Amnesty called on the UK government to “fully investigate” these allegations of torture and ill-treatment and “expedite all avenues to hold the Iranian authorities accountable”.