Iran hanged a former high-ranking protection professional accused of spying for the British, the rustic’s state media reported Saturday.

Alireza Akbari, a 61-year-old British and Iranian citizen, used to be convicted in a closed-door trial. The date of his execution used to be no longer introduced.

“This used to be a callous and cowardly act, performed via a barbaric regime and not using a appreciate for the human rights of their very own other people,” stated British High Minister Rishi Sunak.

Akbari used to be deputy protection minister in Iran between 2000 and 2005. He used to be additionally identified for serving to to implement a 1988 cease-fire that ended the vicious eight-year Iran-Iraq Battle.

In step with Iranian government, Akbari additionally labored for MI6, the British intelligence company, and gave U.Ok. officers data on no less than 178 Iranian figures, CNN reported.

Iran blamed Akbari partly for the 2020 killing of the country’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in step with CNN. No proof towards Akbari used to be published to the general public.

British international minister James Cleverly warned, “This is not going to stand unchallenged.” Iran’s prosecutor-general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, used to be sanctioned via the U.Ok. on Saturday evening.

Akbari had no identified connection to the continuing protests that experience roiled Iran because the demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on Sept. 16. Iran has additionally executed four people hooked up to the motion in contemporary months.

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