Explained: Who is Alireza Akbari the British-Iranian dual national executed by Iran for ‘spying’?

Tehran, Iran

Alireza Akbari, the British-Iranian dual national and former Iranian deputy defence minister was executed by Tehran on Saturday, reported Iran’s judiciary's Mizan news agency. This comes after he was accused of “spying” for Britain and was hanged after being convicted of “corruption on Earth” and acting against national security, reported Al Jazeera citing the judiciary’s official news outlet. The incident has drawn widespread condemnation and action by the United Kingdom against Iran including sanctions and the temporary withdrawal of their ambassador from Tehran, as it considers branding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation along with the European Union in a reportedly coordinated move. 

Who is Alireza Akbari?

Alireza Akbari was a British-Iranian national who also served as deputy defence minister under ex-defence minister Ali Shamkhani in the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s administration, from 1997 to 2005. According to an audio recording purportedly from Akbari which was broadcasted by BBC Persian, earlier this week, Akbari also fought in the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s and was among the ranks of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as well as had a commanding role in developing Tehran’s strategy during the conflict. 

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Since the war, he has reportedly been a close ally of Shamkhani who currently serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. A report by CNN citing Shargh Daily said that Akbari was also a member of the organisation that implemented a ceasefire between Iran-Iraq after the war. Furthermore, he also reportedly led the implementation of a United Nations resolution which ended the war in 1988. 

What was Alireza Akbari accused of by Iran?

According to media reports, Akbari stepped down from his position in Iran and eventually moved to the UK where he ran a private think tank and had not been seen in public until his arrest in Iran four years ago. According to a report by BBC Persian, Akbari said he was living abroad before senior Iranian diplomat, Shamkhani, invited him to visit Iran in 2019.

Iran’s judicial news agency, Mizan while confirming Akbari’s death penalty accused him of being, “one of the most important agents of the British spy service who collected important information and provided this for the British spy service in a fully informed and targeted manner”. Additionally, they also claimed that the Iranian-British national had been cultivated by the UK when he was seeking and recruited aboard, as per the Guardian. 

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According to a report by Reuters, Iranian state media, on Thursday, broadcast a video of Akbari which showed that he played a role in the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who was allegedly killed in 2020. However, at the time, the authorities in Tehran had blamed the attack on Israel, without providing any evidence. 

In that video, while the Iranian-British national did not confess to killing the nuclear scientist he said that a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh, as per Reuters. According to Iranian media reports, he was also accused of being paid more than $2 million in various currencies and allegedly provided information to foreign officials about 178 Iranian officials including Fakhrizadeh. 

Furthermore, when the Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet confirmed the British-Iranian national’s execution it said that Akbari is being hanged for “harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence”. It added, “The actions of the British spy service in this case have shown the value of the convict, the importance of his access and the enemy’s trust in him.” 

Prior to his execution, Akbari had reportedly denied any wrongdoing. He also allegedly said that he was tortured and forced to make false confessions after he was accused of obtaining top-secret intelligence for the British intelligence agency, MI6. Akbari, who was arrested more than three years ago, was reportedly in Evin prison in Tehran where he met other British Iranian dual nationals. 

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“With more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure methods, they took away my will,” said Akbari, as per a report by Reuters, citing the BBC Persian’s audio recording. 

Furthermore, the former deputy defence minister alleged that Iranian security personnel pressured judges to issue a death penalty against him, “The Supreme Court voted against the death penalty, but the Intelligence Ministry imposed its will by threatening the judge,” reported Reuters citing BBC. 

Meanwhile, his wife, Maryam told The Guardian, that a decade or so ago Akbari had “formal consultations” with British officials which were well within the scope of his mission, however, his meetings with a university admissions officer, or an estate agent were misinterpreted by intelligence officials as meeting with an agent. 

She also asserted, “There was no evidence that he was a spy except a confession that was extracted after he was drugged and interrogated for 3,500 hours.” Speaking to the Guardian, Maryam said that he left the government since “public service was no longer possible” and found himself “politically ostracised”. It was then he supposedly decided to leave Iran after which he travelled to Austria and Spain before settling in the UK. 

How did the UK react to Akbari’s sentence and execution?

According to a report by the Guardian, the UK's Foreign Office was aware of Akbari’s case for some time but was only asked to intervene by his family in the last 24 hours when they had exhausted all legal means and political lobbying in Iran had failed. Subsequently, on January 11 the day Akbari was sentenced, the British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, urged the Iranian government to “halt the execution” and called for his immediate release. 

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“This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life,” said Cleverly. After the Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet confirmed Alireza Akbari’s execution, on Saturday morning, the UK Prime Minister took to Twitter and said that he is “appalled” and called it a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people. My thoughts are with Alireza’s friends and family.” 

Since then, there has been widespread condemnation of Iran. The UK foreign minister, hours after the execution said, “Iran has executed a British national. This barbaric act deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms. This will not stand unchallenged. My thoughts are with Alireza Akbari’s family.” The 61-year-old Akbari leaves behind two daughters and a wife who are currently living in the UK.

The fallout from Alireza Akbari’s execution

In addition to widespread condemnation and criticism, the UK government has since imposed sanctions including a travel ban and asset freeze on Iran’s Prosecutor General, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and the British foreign minister said he “is at the heart of Iran's use of the death penalty”. 

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So far, in what is expected to be a series of steps against Iran, on Saturday, Cleverly said that Britain would temporarily withdraw its ambassador from Iran and is considering further action against Tehran following Akbari’s execution. “It is important to recognise that our response is not necessarily limited to the actions that I’ve announced today,” said the UK foreign minister. 

The UK had also summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires while the British ambassador to Tehran, Stephen Shercliff, was also summoned by the Iranian authorities for Britain’s “unconventional interventions”. Tehran also reportedly told Shercliff that “decisive action” to protect Iran’s national security will not “depend on the consent of other governments, including England”. 

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Reports suggest that the UK will be planning to coordinate with the European Union to formally declare Iran’s IRGC a terrorist organisation which would make it a criminal offence to belong to or participate in the group’s activities in Britain.

Notably, this is not the first time that the UK is considering this move. In a press conference, last year, the MI5 chief had said that Iran had planned at least 10 plots to, “kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime,” since the beginning of 2022 alone.

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After Akbari’s execution France also in “full solidarity with the British authorities”, extending their condolences said at the minister’s request summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Iranian Embassy in Paris to “express our outrage”. In a statement, the French government said that they also issued a warning to him and said, “Iran’s repeated violations of international law cannot go unanswered, especially when it comes to the treatment of the foreign nationals the country arbitrarily detains.” 

French President Emmanuel Macron called the British-Iranian dual national’s execution an “odious and barbaric act.” He added, “His name adds to too long a list of victims of repression and the death penalty in Iran.” Meanwhile, the US State Department also described the execution as politically motivated and unjust while the US ambassador to the UK called it “appalling and sickening”. 

(With inputs from agencies) 

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