His family members told the Guardian that the Tehran-based family of the executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari had been prevented from seeing his funeral or burying him in the tomb he wanted to be buried in his birthplace, Shiraz. .
Akbari Executed for spying for the M16accusations which he vehemently denied and which had no tangible evidence other than a confession obtained under torture.
As a final humiliation for the family, Akbari’s sister and daughter went to the Tehran cemetery, where officials said he should be buried to retrieve the body and place it in the assigned burial place, but was told by authorities that a man had been told. He was buried in the cemetery on Thursday with the same name and details, and there were no bodies left to collect.
On Thursday, news of Akbar’s execution circulated briefly, but these reports were quickly dismissed. The family was told that he would not be executed on Friday, a holiday in Iran, and said they had been given the vain hope of a delay by the intelligence ministry on Friday evening, only to wake up Saturday morning with a statement. announced that he was executed by the judicial news agency.
Negotiations about the removal of the body then began, but the family was asked to sign a statement that he would only be buried quietly in a designated marked grave in the Tehran cemetery. The family was informed that any attempt to take the body to Shiraz would result in its seizure and destruction.
On Monday, however, the family arrived to bury Akbari on the agreed plot, but was told by cemetery officials on Thursday that a body with the same name and details was buried there. Authorities said a video of the funeral was filmed but later removed.
A distraught member of the family, who does not reside in Iran, said: “We never saw the body. We don’t know if it was in that cemetery. We don’t know if he was executed on Thursday or Sunday, or even if his parole speech was just to distract us. Maybe we don’t even know if he’s dead or alive because We cannot reach the grave.”
The family member tearfully said, “They’re playing with us. He’s ruthless and heartless. They tried to destroy his reputation by making up that he’s a traitor, and now this.”
The news that Akbari was receiving treatment was confirmed by Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and MP for the Akbari family constituency.
Slaughter urged Akbari to be treated with dignity and respect in death, if not in life. Secretary of State James Cleverley made a statement to the Commons, saying the news filled him with disgust, describing it as “extremely sad”.
He told lawmakers that Akbari was tortured to make him. espionage confessionhe says: “He was the victim of the political vendettas of an evil regime… [the Iranian government] He does not intend to use the death penalty to silence the opposition and settle the internal reckoning.”
He explained that the Akbari family first contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in February last year and has received support ever since. In addition to imposing sanctions on Iran’s attorney general over the weekend, he said 40 sanctions had been imposed on the regime since October, including six against people linked to revolutionary courts.
He said he had previously met with British Ambassador to Tehran Simon Shercliff and promised that the steps taken so far would not limit the UK’s reaction.
Refused to speculate Banning the Islamic Revolutionary Guards armyhowever, most of the lawmakers who intervened during his statement urged him to take action.
