Iran Executes Former Defence Ministry Official It Accused Of Being MI6 Spy

Iran executed a former defence ministry official after accusing him of being a spy for the British intelligence agency MI-6. The US and UK had criticised the death sentence.

New Delhi: Iran on Saturday said that it executed dual Iranian-British national Akbari who once worked for the country's defence ministry. The announcement comes after Iran accused Akbari of being a spy for the British intelligence agency MI-6. Earlier, a highly edited video of Akbari was released discussing the allegations which as per activists were resembling other apparently coerced confessions.

The execution comes despite an outcry over the death sentence and those of others held amid nationwide protests. Iranian news agency Mizan, associated with the country’s judiciary, announced Ali Reza Akbari’s hanging without mentioning when it was carried out. As per the Associate Press, there were rumors Akbari had been executed days ago.

Death Sentence Criticised By United States & Britain

US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel criticised the death sentence on Friday.

“The charges against Ali Reza Akbari and his sentencing to execution were politically motivated. His execution would be unconscionable,” he said, as quoted by AP. “We are greatly disturbed by the reports that Mr. Akbari was drugged, tortured while in custody, interrogated for thousands of hours, and forced to make false confessions,” he added.

The US State Department deputy spox further said that “More broadly, Iran’s practices of arbitrary and unjust detentions, forced confessions, and politically motivated executions are completely unacceptable and must end.”

Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had called on Iran to stop the execution.

“The Iranian regime should be in no doubt. We are watching the case of Ali Reza Akbari closely,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Iranian government has been alleging — without evidence — that foreign countries were behind the protests gripping the Islamic Republic following the death of Mahsa Amini in September who was detained by the morality police. While protesters in Iran have expressed anger over heavy-handed policing, the entrenched power of the country’s Islamic clergy, and economic challenges.

As per the AP, Akbari ran a private think tank and was not seen in public since 2019, when he was apparently arrested. He was reportedly close to a top security official in Iran named Ali Shamkhani which made analysts suggest that his death sentence could have been tied to a possible power struggle within Iran’s security apparatus amid the protests.

Notably, Akbari worked closely with U.N. observers previously to lead the implementation of a 1988 cease-fire between Iran and Iraq following their devastating eight-year war.

Details about his trial have not been released by authorities. 

Iran is among the world’s top executioners. Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are tried behind closed doors. Rights groups allege that the accused in such cases do not get to choose their own lawyers and are not even allowed to see the evidence against them.

(With Agency Inputs)