Iran said on Saturday it had executed a dual British-Iranian national who once held a senior position in the country’s defense ministry despite international warnings to halt his death sentence, further raising tensions with the West amid the national protests that are now shaking the Islamic Republic.
The hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a close ally of top security chief Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing power struggle within Iran’s theocracy as it struggles to contain demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini last September. It also refers to the massive army purges that immediately followed Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Akbari’s hanging drew immediate ire from London, which along with the US and others has sanctioned Iran over the protests and its supply to Russia of the bomb-carrying drones now targeting Ukraine.
“This was a cruel and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
I am horrified by the execution of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari in Iran.
This was a cruel and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people. My thoughts are with Alireza’s friends and family.
—@RishiSunak
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly summoned the UK’s Iran affairs chief and warned separately: “This will not go unchallenged.”
“The execution of British-Iranian Ali Reza Akbari is a barbaric act that deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms,” Cleverly said in a statement. “Through this politically motivated act, the Iranian regime has once again shown its callous disregard for human life.”
Jane Hartley, the US ambassador to London, said the US condemned the execution of the British Iranian national, calling it “appalling and sickening”.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna summoned Iran’s business chief to Paris over the execution, the ministry said in a statement.
“He was also warned that Iran’s repeated violations of international law cannot go unanswered, especially regarding the treatment of foreign nationals it arbitrarily detains,” the statement added.
Iran alleged that Akbari helped MI6
Iran’s Mizan news agency, associated with the country’s judiciary, announced Akbari’s hanging without saying when it happened. However, there were rumors that he had been executed days earlier.
Iran has alleged, without providing evidence, that Akbari served as a source for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, popularly known as MI6. A lengthy statement issued by the Iranian judiciary claimed that Akbari received large sums of money, his British citizenship and other assistance in London to provide information to the intelligence service.
However, Iran has long accused it of spying on those who travel abroad or have Western ties, often using them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaks this Monday during a meeting in Tehran. Khamenei called for a “serious” reaction to the ongoing demonstrations that began in September after the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/The Associated Press)
Akbari, who ran a private think tank, is believed to have been arrested in 2019, but details of his case have only emerged in recent weeks. Those accused of espionage and other crimes related to national security are often tried behind closed doors, where rights groups say they do not choose their own lawyers and are not allowed to see evidence against them.
Iranian state television aired heavily edited video of Akbari discussing the allegations, footage that resembled other alleged confessions that activists have described as coerced confessions.
“They broke my will”
The BBC’s Farsi service broadcast an audio message from Akbari on Wednesday, in which he described being tortured.
“Using physiological and psychological methods, they broke my will, drove me insane and forced me to do what they wanted,” Akbari said in the audio. “At gunpoint and death threats they made me confess to false and corrupt claims.”
Iran has not commented on the torture claims. However, the UN human rights chief has warned Iran against the “weaponisation” of the death penalty as a means to quell protests.
On Friday, US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel also criticized Akbari’s pending execution.
“The charges against Ali Reza Akbari and his death sentence were politically motivated. His execution would be inadmissible,” he said. “We are deeply troubled by reports that Mr. Akbari was drugged, tortured while in custody, interrogated for thousands of hours and forced to make false confessions.”
He added: “More generally, Iran’s practices of arbitrary and unjust detentions, forced confessions and politically motivated executions are completely unacceptable and must end.”
War of Shadows
Iran is one of the world’s leading executioners. However, it was not immediately known when a high-ranking former or current defense official had last been executed. In 1984, Iran executed its navy chief Admiral Baharam Afzali along with nine other military men accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
Iran’s government has for months tried to allege, without providing evidence, that foreign countries have fueled the unrest that has gripped the Islamic Republic since Amini’s death last year after he was arrested for the moral police Protesters say they are angered by the collapse of the economy, the police force and the entrenched power of the country’s Islamic clergy.
For several years, Iran has been locked in a shadow war with the United States and Israel, marked by covert attacks on its disputed nuclear program. The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist in 2020, which Iran blamed on Israel, indicated that foreign intelligence services had made major inroads. Iran mentioned this scientist when discussing Akbari’s case, although it is unclear what current information, if any, he would have had on him.
Akbari had previously led the implementation of a 1988 ceasefire between Iran and Iraq after their devastating eight-year war, working closely with UN observers. He served as deputy defense minister under Shamkhani during the administration of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, which likely made his credentials suspect to hardliners in the Iranian theocracy.
Today, Shamkhani is the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s top security body that oversees Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Akbari’s audio message broadcast by BBC Persian included him saying he was accused of obtaining secret information from Shamkhani “in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt”. However, Shamkhani appears to be continuing in his role.
The anti-government protests now rocking Iran are one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
At least 520 protesters have been killed and 19,400 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided official figures on deaths or arrests.
Iran has executed four people after convicting them of charges related to the protests in equally criticized trials, including attacks on security forces.