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YoIran announced on Saturday that it had executed a British-Iranian citizen who once held a high-ranking position in the country’s Defense Ministry, despite international warnings to stop his death sentence, further escalating tensions with the West amid national protests now rocking the Islamic Republic.
The Hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a close ally of senior security official Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing power struggle within Iran’s theocracy, which is fighting to contain the demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
It also dates back to the massive army purges that immediately followed Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Akbari’s hanging drew immediate ire from London.
“The execution of British-Iranian Ali Reza Akbari is a barbaric act that deserves to be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
“Through this politically motivated act, the Iranian regime has once again demonstrated its callous disregard for human life. This will not go unanswered.”
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 before.
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 Iran’s judiciary claims that Akbari received large sums of money, his British citizenship and other help in London for providing information to the intelligence service.
However, Iran has long accused those who travel abroad or have ties to the West of spying, often using them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
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 national security-related crimes are often tried behind closed doors, where human rights groups say they do not choose their own lawyers and are not allowed to see the 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 forced confessions.
The BBC’s Farsi-language 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 whatever they wanted,” Akbari said in the audio.
Iran has not commented on the torture allegations. However, the United Nations human rights chief has warned Iran against using the death penalty as a means to quell protests.
On Friday, Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel also criticized Akbari’s pending execution.
“The charges against Ali Reza Akbari and his execution sentence were politically motivated. The execution of him would be inconceivable,” he said.
“We are very concerned 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 detention, forced confessions and politically motivated executions are completely unacceptable and must end.”
For months, Iran’s government has been trying to allege, without offering evidence, that foreign countries have fomented the unrest that has gripped the Islamic Republic since Amini’s death in September after his detention by morality police.
The protesters say they are angered by the collapsing economy, the heavy hand of the police 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.
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