British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari who was sentenced to death in Iran, has been executed, Iranian state media says.

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.

The UK had urged Iran to halt the execution and immediately release him.

On Friday, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly warned that “Iran must not follow through with their brutal threat of execution”.

“This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life,” Cleverly tweeted on Wednesday.

Iran posted a video of Akbari this week showing what appeared to be forced confessions.

He had previously said in an audio message received by BBC Persian that he was tortured into confessing to crimes he said he did not commit.

Source » zimlive