Iran executes British-Iranian national, UK condemns 'barbaric' act

Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defense minister, its judiciary said on Saturday, defying calls from London for his release after he was handed the death sentence on charges of spying for Britain.

Britain, which had declared the case against Alireza Akbari, 61, as politically motivated and called for his release, condemned the execution.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it "a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people".
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported the execution early on Saturday, without saying when it had taken place. Late on Friday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said Iran must not follow through with the sentence - a call echoed by Washington.

The execution looks set to pile more pressure on Iran's long strained ties with the West which have deteriorated further since talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal hit deadlock and as Tehran unleashed a deadly crackdown on protesters last year.

'3,500 HOURS OF TORTURE'

Reflecting Iran's worsening ties with the West, London-Tehran relations have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive the nuclear pact, to which Britain is a party.

Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic's crackdown on antigovernmental protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September.

Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown, executing at least four people.

A British foreign office minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering proscribing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization but has not reached a final decision.

In the audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture.

"With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness... and forced me to make false confessions by force of arms and death threats," he said.

An Iranian state TV report broadcast on Saturday said the intelligence ministry had him under surveillance and arrested him in 1998. He was arrested on espionage charges again in 2008 before being freed on bail and leaving the country, it said.

Reuters could not independently verify the details.


REUTERS