– This barbaric act deserves the strongest possible condemnation. This will not go unnoticed, says British Foreign Minister James Cleverly, according to the AFP news agency. Akbari is a former deputy defense minister of Iran. In 2019, he received a death sentence for being a spy for Great Britain. Akbari himself said that he traveled to Iran in 2019 at the invitation of a top Iranian diplomat who was involved in international negotiations on the nuclear deal. That’s when he was arrested. In an interview with the BBC that was published on Wednesday, he told about 3,500 hours of interrogation and torture. This is said to have caused him to confess to crimes he is not guilty of. He accuses Iran of “getting revenge on Britain by executing me.” This week, Akbari’s family were asked to come to the prison to visit him one last time. Then he was hanged. The authorities have not said anything about what kind of reaction the British can and will bring now. From before, Britain has imposed many sanctions on Iran. In December, the UK announced sanctions against 30 new Iranian targets. Denied the British access to Akbari – The Iranian regime should not be in doubt. We are following the case of Alireza Akbari closely. Iran must not follow through on its brutal threat of execution, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted on Friday. The British Foreign Office has told the BBC that it has raised Akbari’s case with Iranian authorities on several occasions. WAS TORTURED: Alireza Akbari tells the BBC that he was tortured into confessing to crimes he did not commit. Photo: AFP The ministry has requested consular access, but Iran’s government does not recognize dual citizenship for Iranians. Britain called on Iran to halt the planned execution and immediately release Akbari. On Saturday morning, the Iranian authorities announced that Akbari had nevertheless been executed. Strong reactions British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calls the execution a cruel and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna summoned Iran’s diplomatic envoy in Paris after the execution. “He was reminded that Iran’s repeated violations of international law cannot go unanswered. In particular with regard to the treatment of foreign nationals whom they arbitrarily arrest,” the French authorities said in a statement. The Norwegian foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, also condemns the execution of Akbari. Cold between Iran and Great Britain Relations between the two countries have become even more strained recently. The British have sharply criticized the Iranian morality police’s handling of the riots in Iran. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights believes Iran uses the death penalty to crush rebellions. At least 18 Iranians have so far been sentenced to death after the protests that broke out when a 22-year-old woman died in the custody of the so-called morality police. ONE OF THE DEMONSTRATORS: The authorities in Iran carried out a public execution of a man in the city of Mashhad in December. Photo: AFP Facts about the ongoing demonstrations The demonstrations arose shortly after Mahsa Jina Amini died in the custody of the morality police in September. At Amini’s funeral in her hometown of Saqqez, women took off their hijabs and shouted slogans such as “death to the dictator” and “women, life, freedom”. The Human Rights Activist News Agency estimates that at least 502 have been killed in the demonstrations since September. Iran Human Rights estimates at least 469. The extensive anti-regime demonstrations are described as the biggest challenge to the country’s governance system since the Islamic revolution in 1979. Described as a leaderless movement whose main goal is to depose the current regime. Composed of religious and non-religious, ethnic minorities, all social classes, with correspondingly different wishes about what the regime should look like after the current one. At least 39 protesters have received the death penalty or are awaiting sentencing, while at least 14,000 have been arrested as a result of the demonstrations. The regime has cracked down hard on the demonstrations, especially in the provinces where ethnic groups other than Persians live. In Baluchistan, 66 protesters are said to have been killed in one day, in what is now called “Bloody Friday”. There have been reports of strikes, demonstrations in prisons, schools and universities, as well as so-called “flash mob” demonstrations throughout Iran. Sources: HRANA, Reuters, NTB, CNN, BBC, Kjetil Selvik (NUPI), Banafsheh Ranji (NTNU), Mikael Naghizadeh (Oxford) In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual citizenship or permanent residence permits in other countries. The accusations mostly concern espionage or security threats. On January 3, a spokesman for the judiciary announced that Iran has indicted two French and one Belgian citizen for espionage and for having opposed Iran’s security. At least two other Iranian-British nationals are imprisoned in Iran. Iran has blacklisted 32 people in response to Europe’s strict sanctions against the country. Among them are several British defense and intelligence chiefs. Those on the list cannot travel to Iran, and any assets they have in the country are frozen. Iran has threatened Iranian-British journalists on British soil with death. British police believe that there may be Iranian murderous groups on British soil who want to take the lives of people in the UK.
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Iran’s execution arouses anger – the British warn of consequences – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
