The Iranian flag flies in front of the UN headquarters in Vienna.
Heinz-Peter Bader | Reuters
Iran has executed British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari, the court’s Mizan news agency reported on Saturday, after sentencing to death Iran’s former deputy defense minister on charges of spying for Britain.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said late Friday that Iran should not follow through with the executions – a call echoed by the US State Department. Britain has described the death sentence as politically motivated and called for his release.
Mizan said in a Tweet early Saturday that the sentence had been carried out, without saying when.
“Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive actions against the internal and external security of the country through espionage for the intelligence services of the British government … was executed,” he said.
The report accused Akbari, who was arrested in 2019, of receiving 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for espionage.
In an audio recording allegedly from Akbari and broadcast by BBC Persian on Wednesday, he said he confessed to a crime he did not commit after extensive torture.
Iranian state media released a video on Thursday that it said showed Akbari played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside Tehran that authorities at the time blamed on Israel.
In the video, Akbari did not admit involvement in the killing but said that British agents had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.
Iranian state media often broadcasts alleged statements by suspects in politically charged cases.
Reuters cannot establish the authenticity of the state media’s video and audio, or when or where it was recorded.
London-Tehran relations have been strained for a long time as efforts have stalled to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, to which the UK is a party.
Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests, triggered by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September.
Britain’s foreign minister said on Thursday that the UK is actively considering banning Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization but has yet to reach a final decision.
Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of a crackdown on the unrest, executing at least four people.
In an audio recording broadcast by BBC Persian, Akbari said he made a false confession due to torture.
“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and methods of physiological and psychological pressure, they took away my will,” he said.
Akbari is a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, who served as defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.