Huge outrage after British-Iranian Alireza Akbari executed

• Alireza Akbari, former Iranian deputy defense minister, was found guilty.
• The 61 y/o was hanged, according to the official news source of the Iranian judiciary.
• His execution condemned as “callous and cowardly act by a barbaric regime”.

It has been widely criticized that the British-Iranian man Alireza Akbari, who had been given a death sentence, was executed.

The former Iranian deputy defense minister was detained in 2019 and found guilty of spying for the UK despite his denials.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his execution was a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime”.

France summoned Iran’s top diplomat in Paris, warning that Tehran’s repeated violations of international law could not go unanswered.

Meanwhile, the UK has imposed sanctions on Iran’s Prosecutor General, saying it would hold the regime to account “for its appalling human rights violations”.

“Sanctioning him today underlines our disgust at Alireza Akbari’s execution,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.

Iran summoned the British ambassador in Tehran over what it called Britain’s “unconventional interventions”.

The 61-year-old Mr. Akbari was hanged, according to the official news source of the Iranian judiciary, Mizan, on Saturday. The day of the execution was not mentioned in the document.

This week, after the country’s intelligence ministry referred to the British-Iranian as “one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran,” Iran published a video of Mr. Akbari appearing to make forced confessions.

However, Mr. Akbari said in an audio message that was aired on reupdated media outlet that he had been subjected to torture and coerced into making false confessions on camera.

On Wednesday, Mr. Akbari’s family was requested to pay him a “last visit” in the prison, and according to his wife, he had been sent to solitary confinement.

Amnesty International, a human rights organization, urged the UK to look into allegations that Mr. Akbari was tortured before his death. Iran was charged by the group of having “pitifully little respect” for human life.

Dr Sanam Vakil, Iran expert at international affairs think tank Chatham House, said Mr. Akbari’s death would be used by the Iranian regime to suggest a “heavy outside hand” was stoking the antigovernmental unrest – linking the protests with the accusation that Western nations were trying to “destabilize the Islamic republic”.

“Keeping the narrative of the West being involved is a way to maintain unity among the political establishment,” she told repeated media outlet.

Since London placed sanctions on Iran’s morality police and other top security officers in reaction to the nation’s harsh crackdown on antigovernmental protestors, relations between the UK and Iran have deteriorated.

In recent years, Iran has detained dozens of Iranians who have a second nationality or permanent residence abroad, most often on espionage and national security-related allegations.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, who are both British-Iranian nationals, were released and granted permission to leave Iran last year after the UK paid a long-standing debt owed to Tehran.

However, at least two other British-Iranians, including US citizen Morad Tahbaz, are still being held.

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