British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “appalled” by Iran’s decision to execute British-Iranian dual national, Alireza Akbari, PA Media reported on Saturday.
“This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people,” Sunak wrote on Twitter.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also took to Twitter, saying the “barbaric act” deserved “condemnation in the strongest terms.”
“This will not stand unchallenged,” Cleverly wrote.
Iran had sentenced the former top politician to death earlier in the week over espionage charges.
Mr Akbari’s family had been asked to go to his prison for a “final visit” on Wednesday and his wife said he had been moved to solitary confinement.
The ex-deputy Iranian defence minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the execution was a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime”.
Iran’s rulers had “no respect for the human rights of their own people” Mr Sunak said, adding that his thoughts were “with Alireza’s friends and family”.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the execution would “not stand unchallenged”.
The Iranian judiciary’s official news outlet Mizan reported on Saturday that Alireza Akbari had been hanged, without specifying the date when the execution took place.
The news came after Iran posted a video of Mr Akbari earlier this week showing what appeared to be forced confessions, and after the country’s intelligence ministry had described the British-Iranian as “one of the most important agents of the British intelligence service in Iran”.
However BBC Persian broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Mr Akbari in which he said he had been tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.
