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Aliresa Akbari was executed in Iran
Photo:
- / AFP
Iran has executed a former British-Iranian leader on espionage charges.
As the justice portal Misan announced, Aliresa Akbari was killed on Saturday.
Iran had sentenced the former deputy defense minister to death in a spy trial for leaking secrets.
According to media reports, Akbari was arrested in 2019.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted that he condemned the execution of the "barbaric regime" that has no respect for the human rights of its own people.
Secretary of State James Cleverly said the crime would not go unpunished.
Between 2014 and 2015, Akbari accompanied the Iran delegation to the nuclear negotiations in Vienna as a military advisor.
According to the Iranian security authorities, he is said to have passed on secret information to the British secret service in both functions.
Akbari, his wife and brother had always vehemently denied the allegations.
On Wednesday, BBC Persian released an audio recording of Akbari saying he confessed to crimes he did not commit after being tortured.
According to the Guardian, Iranian state media released a video on Thursday that allegedly showed that Akbari was involved in the assassination of a nuclear scientist.
Akbari says in the video that a British agent asked him for information about the scientist.
According to the Guardian, Iran often publishes alleged confessions in explosive cases.
Did Akbari get into a power struggle?
According to observers, the case is about a power struggle between President Ebrahim Raisi and then Defense Minister Ali Shamchani, who is now Chairman of the Security Council.
Shamchani, who was critical of police violence during the protests in Iran, is said to be discredited by the verdict against Akbari.
It is unclear how Akbari, as deputy defense secretary and military adviser to the Security Council, was able to obtain British citizenship in the first place.
Dual nationals are not allowed to hold top political offices in Iran.
Britain had asked Iran to stop the execution.
Secretary of State Cleverly described them as "politically motivated."
hba/dpa/AFP