Alireza Akbari: Outrage following British-Iranian execution
In 2019, the ex-deputy Iranian defense minister was arrested and convicted of spying for the United Kingdom, which he denied.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated his killing was a "callous and despicable crime, carried out by a barbaric administration".
Iran's senior ambassador was summoned to Paris by France, which warned that Tehran's repeated transgressions of international law would not go unpunished.
Meanwhile, the UK has sanctions on Iran's Prosecutor General, stating it would hold the regime to account "for its horrific human rights breaches".
"Sanctioning him today demonstrates our outrage at Alireza Akbari's killing," stated UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
Iran summoned the British ambassador in Tehran over what it called Britain's "unconventional interventions".
On Saturday, the Iranian judiciary's official news agency Mizan stated that Mr. Akbari, 61, had been hanged. It did not say when the execution occurred.
- Iran executes a dual British-Iranian national
- Iran is planning to execute a British citizen and his family.
Iran broadcast a video of Mr. Akbari earlier this week showing what looked to be coerced confessions, and after the country's intelligence ministry had identified the British-Iranian as "one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran".
However, on Wednesday, BBC Persian published an audio message from Mr. Akbari in which he said he was tortured and forced to confess to acts he did not commit.
Mr. Akbari's family was requested to pay a "last visit" to his prison on Wednesday, and his wife said he had been relocated to solitary confinement.
Amnesty International has called on the UK to examine reports that Mr. Akbari was tortured before his death. Iran was accused by the group of having "pitifully little respect" for human life.
Dr. Sanam Vakil, Iran expert at international affairs think tank Chatham House, said Mr. Akbari's death would be used by the Iranian regime to suggest a "heavy outside hand" was stoking the anti-government unrest - linking the protests with the accusation that Western nations were trying to "destabilize the Islamic republic".
"Keeping the narrative of the West being involved is a means to keep the political establishment united," she said on BBC Radio 4's Today program.
Since London placed sanctions on Iran's morality police and other top security officers in reaction to the country's harsh crackdown on anti-government protestors, relations between the UK and Iran have deteriorated.
In recent years, Iran has imprisoned dozens of Iranians holding dual nationality or permanent foreign citizenship, usually on spying and national security allegations.
After the UK settled a long-standing debt owing to Tehran, British-Iranian citizens Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released and allowed to leave Iran last year.
However, at least two other British-Iranians remain detained, including Morad Tahbaz, who also has US citizenship.
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