Iran stated on Saturday it had accomplished a twin Iranian-British nationwide who as soon as held a high-ranking place within the nation’s protection ministry – in spite of world warnings to halt his dying sentence.
The determination has escalated the rustic’s tensions with the West amid national protests which have been shaking the Islamic Republic.
The putting of Ali Reza Akbari, an in depth best friend of height safety professional Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing energy battle inside of Iran’s theocracy because it struggles to comprise the demonstrations over the September dying of Mahsa Amini. It additionally harkened again to the mass purges of the army that straight away adopted Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Akbari’s putting drew fast anger from London.
“The execution of British-Iranian Ali Reza Akbari is a barbaric act that deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
“Through this politically motivated act, the Iranian regime has once again shown its callous disregard for human life.”
He added: “This will not stand unchallenged.”
Iran’s Mizan news agency, associated with the country’s judiciary, announced Akbari’s hanging without saying when it happened. However, there were rumors he was executed days earlier.
Iran has alleged, without providing evidence, that Akbari served as a source for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6. A lengthy statement issued by Iran’s judiciary claimed Akbari received large sums of money, his British citizenship and other help in London for providing information to the intelligence service.
Iran has historically accused those who travel abroad or have Western ties of spying, often using them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
Akbari, who ran a private think tank, is believed to have been arrested in 2019; but details of his case only emerged in recent weeks.
Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are usually tried behind closed doors, where rights groups say they do not choose their own lawyers and are not allowed to see evidence against them.
Iranian state television aired a highly edited video of Akbari discussing the allegations, footage that resembled other claimed confessions that activists have described as coerced confessions.
The BBC Farsi-language service aired an audio message from Akbari on Wednesday, in which he described being tortured.
“By using physiological and psychological methods, they broke my will, drove me to madness and forced me to do whatever they wanted,” Akbari stated within the audio.
“By the force of gun and death threats they made me confess to false and corrupt claims.”
Iran has no longer commented at the torture claims. However, the United Nations human rights leader Volker Turk has warned Iran in opposition to the “weaponisation” of the dying penalty as a way to position down the protests.
On Friday, state division deputy spokesman Vedant Patel additionally criticized Akbari’s pending execution.
“The charges against Ali Reza Akbari and his sentencing to execution were politically motivated. His execution would be unconscionable,” he stated.
“We are greatly disturbed by the reports that Mr. Akbari was drugged, tortured while in custody, interrogated for thousands of hours, and forced to make false confessions.”
He added: “More broadly, Iran’s practices of arbitrary and unjust detentions, forced confessions and politically motivated executions are completely unacceptable and must end.”
Iran is among the global’s height executioners.
For months, Iran’s authorities has been looking to allege – with out providing proof – that international international locations were stirring up the unrest gripping the Islamic Republic for the reason that dying of Amini in September, after her detention through the morality police. Protesters say they’re indignant over the cave in of the economic system, heavy-handed policing and the entrenched energy of the rustic’s Islamic clergy.
For a number of years, Iran has been locked in a shadow conflict with america and Israel, marked through covert assaults on its disputed nuclear program. The killing of Iran’s height nuclear scientist in 2020, which Iran blamed on Israel, indicated international intelligence products and services had made main inroads.
Akbari had up to now led the implementation of a 1988 cease-fire between Iran and Iraq following their devastating eight-year conflict, operating carefully with the UN. He served as a deputy protection minister beneath Shamkhani all through reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s management, most probably making his credentials suspicious to hard-liners inside of Iran’s theocracy.
Today, Shamkhani is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, the rustic’s height safety frame which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei oversees. Akbari’s audio message, aired through the BBC’s Persian community, integrated him announcing he used to be accused of acquiring top-secret data from Shamkhani “in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt.” It seems that for now, Shamkhani stays in his function.
The anti-government protests now shaking Iran are some of the greatest demanding situations to the Islamic Republic for the reason that 1979 revolution.
At least 520 protesters were killed and 19,400 other people were arrested, in keeping with human rights activists in Iran, a bunch that has been tracking the unrest. Iranian government have no longer supplied professional figures on deaths or arrests.
Iran has accomplished 4 other people after convicting them of fees connected to the protests in in a similar fashion criticized trials, together with assaults on safety forces.
