Alireza Akbari, a former official and dual British-Iranian citizen has been handed the death penalty in Iran for espionage for the United Kingdom, per Mizan, a publication linked to the Iranian court.
Shargh Daily, an Iranian pro-reform publication, reported that Akbari formerly held the positions of deputy defense minister, director of the Strategic Research Institute, and part of the military group that carried out the United Nations resolution that ended the Iran-Iraq conflict.
UK Slams Iran Death Penalty
Mizan claimed Akbari some time ago was detained for spying against Iran. It added that after filing an indictment, the case was sent to court, and hearings were conducted in the presence of the accused's counsel. Based on the legitimate papers in this person's file, he was given the Iran death penalty for spying for the UK.
The United Kingdom has spoken out against Iran's death penalty for Akbari. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Iran not to execute Alireza Akbari, a former senior defense officer accused of espionage for MI6.
Cleverly tweeted that Iran must suspend the execution of British-Iran citizen Alireza Akbari and promptly free him. He said that the decision is a politically driven act by a "barbaric" administration that completely disdains human life.
Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister, was detained in 2019 on charges of spying for MI6 relating to previous nuclear negotiations between Iran and western countries.
Maryam, Akbari's wife, told the agency she was asked to a "last meeting" at the jail where he is in isolation, indicating an approaching Iran death penalty.
The head of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, accused Iran of trying to "weaponize" dual nationals as anti-government demonstrations rocked the Islamic nation.
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Akbari Says He Was Tortured
The British-Iran citizen contested the accusation and said he was tortured into videotaping confessions to acts he did not commit. In the audio, Akbari claims that intelligence officials "interrogated and tortured" him for over 3,500 hours.
He adds that he was also given "psychedelic substances" and that they recorded his confessions for more than 3,500 hours within ten months, using ten cameras.
Akbari said: "By utilizing physiological and psychological tactics, they shattered my will, drove me to lunacy, and forced me to do anything they wanted. The power of pistol and death threats made me confess to false and corrupt accusations."
He also remarked that Iran wants "to take vengeance on the UK" through his death sentence. In the hours after the release of the audio message, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency officially announced that Akbari had been convicted guilty of spying and that the Supreme Court had denied his appeal.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Akbari's espionage was exposed due to its operatives' deliberate dissemination of false information. Iranian state media said that four individuals convicted of "cooperating" with Israeli intelligence had been executed at the end of November.
Since December, four other individuals who had been found guilty of participating in the nationwide anti-government rallies and given the Iran death penalty have been put to death.
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