Iran executes British-Iranian dual national

Iran has refused to hand over the body of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari, who was executed in Tehran on spying allegations last week, a British member of parliament has said.

Labour MP Andy Slaughter, who represents the Hammersmith district in London where Mr Akbari used to reside, said that authorities in Iran had threatened to destroy Mr Akbari’s body and that he had already been buried, citing information from his family in the UK.

The execution drew strong international condemnation, not only from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak but also from French President Emmanuel Macron and the EU trading bloc.

Iran has in recent years detained dual national citizens from most western countries, accusing them of espionage, charges widely dismissed outside Iran as being baseless.

Analysts say Iran holds the citizens as hostages to use as leverage against the West, but the policy appears to be backfiring as support to renew a 2015 nuclear deal rapidly ebbs in Europe and North America.

Iranian media announced on Saturday that Mr Akbari had been executed. In its immediate response to the killing, the UK government sanctioned Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazer.

Both the UK Labour opposition party and the ruling Conservative party called to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.