DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran mentioned Saturday it executed a former high-ranking protection ministry official and twin Iranian-British nationwide, regardless of worldwide warnings to not perform the dying sentence. The execution additional escalated tensions with the West amid the nationwide anti-government protests shaking the Islamic Republic.
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The hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a detailed ally of high safety official Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing energy battle inside Iran’s theocracy because it tries to include the demonstrations over the September dying of Mahsa Amini. It additionally harkened again to the mass purges of the army that instantly adopted Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Akbari’s hanging drew instant anger from London, which together with the U.S. and others has sanctioned Iran over the protests and its supplying Russia with the bomb-carrying drones now focusing on Ukraine.
“This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their very own individuals,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak mentioned.
Overseas Secretary James Cleverly summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in the UK and individually warned: “This won’t stand unchallenged.”
Iran equally summoned the British ambassador after the execution.
Iran’s Mizan information company, related to the nation’s judiciary, introduced Akbari’s hanging with out saying when it occurred. Nevertheless, there have been rumors he had been executed days earlier.
Iran has alleged, with out offering proof, that Akbari served as a supply for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, recognized popularly as MI6. A prolonged assertion issued by Iran’s judiciary claimed Akbari acquired giant sums of cash, his British citizenship and different assist in London for offering data to the intelligence service.
Nevertheless, Iran lengthy has accused those that journey overseas or have Western ties of spying, typically utilizing them as bargaining chips in negotiations.
Akbari, who ran a personal suppose tank, is believed to have been arrested in 2019, however particulars of his case solely emerged in latest weeks. These accused of espionage and different crimes associated to nationwide safety are often tried behind closed doorways, the place rights teams say they don’t select their very own legal professionals and usually are not allowed to see proof towards them.
Iranian state tv aired a extremely edited video of Akbari discussing the allegations, footage that resembled different claimed confessions that activists have described as coerced confessions.
The BBC Farsi-language service aired an audio message from Akbari on Wednesday, wherein he described being tortured.
“Through the use of physiological and psychological strategies, they broke my will, drove me to insanity and compelled me to do no matter they needed,” Akbari mentioned within the audio. “By the drive of gun and dying threats they made me confess to false and corrupt claims.”
Iran has not commented on the torture claims. Nevertheless, the United Nations human rights chief has warned Iran towards the “weaponization” of the dying penalty as a way to place down the protests.
On Friday, State Division deputy spokesman Vedant Patel additionally criticized Akbari’s pending execution.
“The costs towards Ali Reza Akbari and his sentencing to execution have been politically motivated. His execution could be unconscionable,” he mentioned. “We’re vastly disturbed by the stories that Mr. Akbari was drugged, tortured whereas in custody, interrogated for hundreds of hours, and compelled to make false confessions.”
He added: “Extra broadly, Iran’s practices of arbitrary and unjust detentions, pressured confessions and politically motivated executions are utterly unacceptable and should finish.”
Robert Malley, the U.S. particular envoy for Iran, mentioned he was “horrified” by Akbari’s execution.
“The Islamic Republic’s unjust detentions, pressured confessions, sham trials and politically motivated executions should finish,” he wrote on-line.
WATCH: U.S. joins UK in decrying deliberate execution in Iran
French President Emmanuel Macron additionally decried what he referred to as “a heinous and barbaric act.”
German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned on Twitter that the execution “is an additional inhuman act by the Iranian regime.”
Iran is without doubt one of the world’s high executioners. Nevertheless, it wasn’t instantly clear when the final time of a former or present high-ranking protection official had been executed. In 1984, Iran executed its navy chief Adm. Baharam Afzali together with 9 different army individuals on a cost of spying for the Soviet Union.
Iran’s authorities for months has been attempting to allege — with out providing proof — that overseas nations have fomented the unrest gripping the Islamic Republic for the reason that dying of 22-year-old Amini in September after her detention by the morality police. Protesters say they’re indignant over the collapse of the financial system, heavy-handed policing and the entrenched energy of the nation’s Islamic clergy.
READ MORE: Girls go with out hijabs as confusion grows over Iran’s gown code enforcement
For a number of years, Iran has been locked in a shadow battle with the US and Israel, marked by covert assaults on its disputed nuclear program. The killing of Iran’s high nuclear scientist in 2020, which Iran blamed on Israel, indicated overseas intelligence companies had made main inroads. Iran talked about that scientist in discussing Akbari’s case, although it’s unclear what present data, if any, he would have had on him.
Akbari had beforehand led the implementation of a 1988 cease-fire between Iran and Iraq following their devastating eight-year battle, working intently with U.N. observers. He served as a deputy protection minister underneath Shamkhani throughout reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s administration, seemingly additional making his credentials suspicious to hard-liners inside Iran’s theocracy.
Right this moment, Shamkhani is the secretary of the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council of Iran, the nation’s high safety physique which Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei oversees. Akbari’s audio message aired by the BBC Persian included him saying he was accused of acquiring top-secret data from Shamkhani “in alternate for a bottle of fragrance and a shirt.” Nevertheless, it seems Shamkhani stays in his function.
The anti-government protests now shaking Iran are one of many greatest challenges to the Islamic Republic for the reason that 1979 revolution.
At the very least 520 protesters have been killed and 19,400 individuals have been arrested, in accordance with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities haven’t supplied official figures on deaths or arrests.
Iran has executed 4 individuals after convicting them of prices linked to the protests in equally criticized trials, together with assaults on safety forces.
Related Press author Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
