The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, expressed this Saturday “appalled” by the execution in Iran of the British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari, accused of spying for the United Kingdom, and described the act as “cruel and cowardly”.
In his Twitter account, the British Prime Minister considered that it was “a cruel and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime that does not respect the human rights of its own people.”
Declaring himself “shocked” by the execution, Rishi Sunak sent his condolences to the “friends and family” of Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian official who became Iran’s deputy defense minister.
Amnesty International (AI) has also gone so far as to condemn Iran’s “heinous attack” on the “right to life”, stating on Twitter that “the execution of British-Iranian Alireza Akbari by the Iranian authorities this morning is another abominable attack against the right to life.
AI also called on the British government to “fully investigate” allegations that Alireza Akbari was tortured.
The Iranian judicial authorities announced on Wednesday the death sentence of the former deputy minister -although it is unknown when he was sentenced- for “espionage for MI6” in exchange for “1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds and 50,000 US dollars”, according to the semi-media. Mehr officers.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also expressed his displeasure “in the strongest terms” at the execution, saying this action “will not go unchallenged.”
“Let the Iranian regime have no doubts. Iran must not continue with its brutal threat of executions,” he said on Twitter.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused of using prisoners of dual nationality in particular, but also from other countries, as a measure of pressure or for the exchange of prisoners with other countries.
These acts have been labeled by other countries and human rights organizations as Iran’s “hostage diplomacy.”
According to the agency of the Iranian judiciary, designated as Mizan, Alireza Akbari, who held the post of Deputy Defense Minister during the term of former reformist president Mohamed Katami (1997/2005), was executed by hanging.
The 61-year-old convict, arrested three years ago, appealed the sentence before the Federal Supreme Court, which rejected the appeal.
The Iranian Interior Ministry described Akbari “as one of the most important cases of infiltration” of the security of the Persian country.
Iranian authorities released a heavily redacted video of Akbari discussing the allegations, similar to other videos that dissidents have described as forced confessions.
On Friday, both Britain and the United States criticized Akbari’s death sentence.
The announcement of Akbari’s execution comes as Iran is being rocked by a wave of protests following the death of a young Iranian Kurdish man in police custody.
Mahsa Amini, 22, was attacked and arrested on the street in Tehran on September 13 by the so-called morality police, for wearing the hijab (Islamic headscarf) incorrectly, and was later transported in a coma to a hospital. where she would die after three days.
However, the protests in recent months have grown in size and have evolved, now calling for the end of the theocratic regime called the “Islamic Republic”, founded in 1979.
Tehran has accused the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, France and Germany of being behind the protests, in which nearly 500 people died as a result of police repression.
According to Amnesty International (AI), Iran is one of the countries that executes the most people.
Source: TSF
