Iran has executed British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari, Iranian state media reports according to the BBC. The execution is condemned by the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“This was a cruel and cowardly act carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of its own people. My thoughts go out to Alireza’s friends and family,” he writes on Twitter.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement that the execution “will not go unanswered”.
Akbari, who was Iran’s deputy defense minister, was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for Britain, which he denies. His family had “one last visit” with him on Wednesday before he was placed in isolation.
This week, the dictatorship posted a video of Akbari in which he appears to be forced to confess to crimes. According to audio recordings obtained by the BBC, he has previously said that he was tortured into confessing to crimes he did not commit.
See more about the execution in the player above.