DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said Saturday it had executed a British-Iranian citizen who had worked for its Defense Ministry, despite international criticism over his death sentence and those of other detainees during the protests that shake the country.
The Mizan news agency, linked to the Iranian judiciary, reported on the death of Ali Reza Akbari by hanging.
He did not give a date of death, but it was rumored that he would have been executed days ago.
Iran had accused Akbari, without offering evidence, of being a spy for Britain's MI-6 intelligence agency and released a heavily edited video of Akbari discussing the allegations, similar to others that activists have described as
forced confessions
.
A 2008 file photo shows Ali Reza Akbari during a book launch in Tehran, Iran. Davoud Hosseini / AP
On Friday, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel criticized Akbari's pending execution.
“
The charges against Alireza Akbari and his death sentence are politically motivated.
The execution of her would be inconceivable,” the spokesperson stated.
[Iranian Attorney General Aims for “Abolishment” of Morality Police After Months of Social Protest over the Death of a Young Woman]
"We are deeply disturbed by reports that Mr. Akbari was drugged, tortured in detention, interrogated for thousands of hours and forced to make false confessions," it added.
"More generally, Iranian practices of carrying out arbitrary and unjust arrests, forced confessions and politically motivated executions are completely unacceptable and
must end
," he added.
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