The Iranian government, on Saturday, January 14, executed former top defence official and a British-Iranian national, Alireza Akbari, who was accused of spying for United Kingdom (UK) intelligence, by hanging.
Akbari was executed after being sentenced to death for “corruption and harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence.”
The 61-year-old man, before his execution, held high positions in the country’s defence establishment.
His posts included “deputy minister of defence for foreign affairs” and a position in the “secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council.”
Also, he was an “advisor to the commander of the navy” as well as “head of a division at the defence ministry’s research centre”.
In a video clip published by Iranian media, Akbari was seen apparently talking about his contacts with Britain.
He also said that he was questioned by the British about Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, assassinated in November 2020 in an attack that Tehran blamed on arch-foe, Israel.
Akbari, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war that raged from 1980-1988, was arrested between March 2019 and March 2020, according to The Punch.
Iran’s intelligence ministry, in a statement released earlier this week, said that Akbari became a “key spy” for Britain’s secret intelligence service, commonly known as MI6, due to “the importance of his position.”
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