Iran’s
judiciary announced on Wednesday that a former deputy defense minister had been
convicted and sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain, where he had
lived for a decade as a dual national.
اضافة اعلان
Alireza
Akbari, who had served the Islamic Republic in senior roles until his departure
to Britain, was arrested in 2019 in Iran on allegations of being a “super spy”
for MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, and passing it classified
national security information, according to a statement released on Wednesday
by Iran’s intelligence ministry.
The news
of a dual national at risk of execution comes at a time of heightened tensions
for Iran’s government both at home and abroad.
Iran has been roiled for months
by a popular protest movement demanding an end to the theocratic regime, which
in recent weeks has executed four demonstrators in a widening crackdown aimed
at crushing dissent.
Western
countries, including Britain, have condemned Iran’s government for deploying
violence against protesters and for the recent executions, and have slapped
targeted sanctions on officials and groups involved in the crackdown.
‘A politically motivated act’Britain
on Wednesday demanded that
Iran halt the execution of Akbari and immediately
release him, and requested consulate access to him in Tehran. Iran’s government
does not recognize dual nationality and prosecutes dual nationals as Iranian
citizens.
“This is
a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for
human life,” James Cleverly, Britain’s foreign minister, tweeted on Wednesday.
Akbari suggested that Iran’s intelligence ministry wanted to “take revenge” on Britain by executing him
Akbari’s
case was made public for the first time on Tuesday when his wife, Maryam
Samadi, told BBC Persian that the family had remained quiet in hopes of
resolving the case through their official contacts in Iran, but that her
husband’s fate had suddenly changed in the past 48 hours.
Samadi
said
Iranian authorities had informed the family that they would be granted a
final visit with her husband before his imminent execution. He had been moved
to solitary confinement, she said, where prisoners on death row are typically
taken before hanging.
In an
audio message obtained by BBC Persian, Akbari said he had visited Iran in 2018
and 2019, met with the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council,
Ali Shamkhani, and given him a shirt and a bottle of perfume as gifts. He said
he was accused of obtaining classified information in that meeting and
providing it to a foreign state.
Akbari
suggested that Iran’s intelligence ministry wanted to “take revenge” on Britain
by executing him, and asked why Shamkhani had not been arrested if he had
leaked classified information to him. Akbari served as Shamkhani’s deputy when
Shamkhani was defense minister in the early 2000s. He said the judge had told
him he had no power to arrest Shamkhani but would “destroy” Akbari.
Akbari
said in the message that he had been tortured and given psychedelic drugs that
pushed him “to the brink of insanity” and forced him to confess. It was not
clear when the message was recorded.
What
motive?Analysts
said the details of this case are scant, making it hard to determine Iran’s
motives for Akbari’s arrest and harsh sentence. They could range from a tit-for-tat
response to recent Western sanctions, to a posturing anti-Western stance and
political infighting among factions.
“It would be a massive escalation to execute a British Iranian citizen.”
“High-level
arrests in Iran, especially those involving foreign governments, often have
more than one motive,” said Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iran expert who teaches
international relations at Columbia University and a former dual national
prisoner in Iran. “It would be a massive escalation to execute a British
Iranian citizen.”
On
Tuesday, Iran’s judiciary also sentenced a Belgian aid worker, Olivier
Vandecasteele, to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges of espionage,
money laundering, and currency smuggling. Vandecasteele, who was arrested in
February of last year, has denied all charges.
The
Belgian foreign ministry issued a statement calling the detention arbitrary and
said that Iran had provided no information on the case and that its ambassador
would be summoned.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
