The United Kingdom announced on Saturday that it had imposed sanctions to the Attorney General of Iran, Mohamad Jafar Montazeribehind the performance from British-Iranian Alireza Akbariaccused of espionage.
“By imposing sanctions on you today, we underscore our rejection of the execution of Alireza Akbari”, tweeted the British foreign secretary, James Cleverley, without specifying the nature of the sanctions. “We ask the (Iranian) regime to be held accountable for their appalling human rights abuses”, he added.
British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunakwas shown this Saturday “dismayed” by execution in Iran of Alireza Akbariaccused of spying for the United Kingdom, and described the act as “cruel and cowardly”.
“It was a cruel and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime that does not respect the human rights of its own peopleSunak wrote on his Twitter account.
Declaring himself “shocked” by the execution, he sent his condolences to the “friends and family” of Akbari, a former Iranian officer who became deputy defense minister in that country.
Iranian judicial authorities reported the former deputy minister’s death sentence on Wednesday, although it is unknown when he was sentenced, for “spy for MI6” (British intelligence services) in exchange for “1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds and 50,000 US dollars”according to the semi-official media More.
James Cleverley He also expressed his rejection “in the most emphatic terms” of the execution and assured that the action “will not go unanswered”.
“The Iranian regime should not have any doubts. Iran must not continue with its brutal threat of executions,” Cleverly said on Twitter.
For its part, the Iranian branch of International Amnesty described the execution as “abominable”.
“The execution this morning of Iranian-British citizen Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian official, by the Iranian authorities once again shows their abominable attack on the right to life. The use of the death penalty is atrocious under any circumstances,” Amnesty International said on Twitter.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused of using prisoners with dual nationality especially, but also from other countries, as a measure of pressure or for prisoner exchange with other countries.
This has been termed as the “hostage diplomacy” of Iran by other countries and human rights organizations.
Akbari served as deputy defense minister during the former reformist president’s tenure Mohamed Khatami (1997-2005) and was arrested three years ago.
The Intelligence Ministry has described Akbari “as one of the most important cases of infiltration” of the security of the Persian country.
Alireza Akbari, 61, was hanged after being found guilty of “corruption on Earth and attacking the internal and external security of the country by transferring intelligence information”, reported the news agency Mizan Online.
Regime propaganda outlets on Thursday released a video they said showed Akbari played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, died in an attack on the outskirts of Tehran in 2020 for which the authorities then blamed Israel.
In the video, Akbari did not confess to his involvement in the murder, but claimed that a British agent had asked him for information on Fakhrizadeh.
The announcement of his death sentence came amid protests rocking Iran following the death in police custody of Mahsa Aminiafter being arrested for not wearing the Islamic headscarf properly.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com