DUBAI: Iran has executed a British-Iranian national who once served as its deputy defence minister, its judiciary said, defying calls from London and Wash­ing­ton 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 politically motivated, condemned the execution, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling it “a callous and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime” and foreign secretary announcing sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general.

Akbari, 61, was arrested in 2019. The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the execution 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.

In an audio recording purportedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he had confessed to crimes he had not committed after extensive torture.

UK condemns ‘barbaric’ act, imposes sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general

“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government’s intelligence service...was executed,” Mizan said.

The Mizan report accused Akbari of receiving payments of 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for spying.

PM Sunak tweet he was “ap­­palled by the execution”, saying Tehran had “no respect for the human rights of their own people”.

The foreign secretary said it would “not stand unchallenged”, later announcing Britain had imposed sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general.

Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador on Saturday over what it called London’s “meddling in Iran’s nat­ional security realm”, the state news agency IRNA reported.

French Foreign Minister Cathe­ri­­ne Colonna summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires over the execution. He was “warned that Iran’s repeated violations of international law cannot go unanswered.

Iranian state media, which have portrayed Akbari as a super spy, broadcast a video on Thursday that they said showed that he played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuc­lear scientist, Mohsen Fakhri­zadeh, killed in an attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2023