Alireza Akbari, the former deputy defense minister convicted of a British spy, was hanged by the Iranian regime. The local media reported it. Akbari’s family, who also held British citizenship, was asked to go to jail on Wednesday for “the final visit” and his wife said her husband had been moved to solitary confinement. Arrested in 2019, Akbari was sentenced as British spy, a charge Akbari had always disputed.
The execution took place after the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, yesterday warned Tehran not to proceed «with the brutal threat of execution. This is a politically motivated action by a barbaric regime that has no respect for human life at all.” The regime had posted a video in recent days with Akbari’s confession, but on Wednesday the BBC broadcast an audio in which the convict claimed to have been tortured and forced to confess in front of television cameras to crimes he had not committed.
Akbari had been deputy defense minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005). He was very close to then Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, now a member of the Supreme National Security Council.
According to al Jazeera, some observers suggest that the accusations against Akbari are politically motivated and carried out by opponents of Shamkhani within the Iranian regime. Accused of being one of the “most important British intelligence agents”, Akbari had been accused of revealing state secrets, and the death sentence was upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court. The Foreign Office had repeatedly requested to be able to provide assistance to its citizen, but the regime had refused consular access since it does not recognize dual citizenship for Iranians.