TEHRAN: Iran has sentenced a man to death after his conviction for spying for British intelligence services, the Islamic republic’s judicial news agency reported on Wednesday.

“Alireza Akbari was sentenced to death for corruption on earth and for harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence,” Mizan Online reported.

It did not specify Akbari’s age, occupation, date of arrest or sentencing, but said the move had been confirmed by the Supreme Court, without mentioning when.

Citing a statement from the intelligence ministry, Mizan said Akbari had become a “key spy” for Britain’s “Secret Intelligence Service” — MI6 — due to “the importance of his position”.

On Feb 2, 2019, the official government newspaper Iran published an interview with Alireza Akbari, whom it identified as a “former deputy defence minister in the reformist government” of Mohammad Khatami, who served as Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005.

In early December, Iran put to death four people accused of working with Israel’s intelligence service, Mizan said at the time.

Iran carried out the sentences four days after the Supreme Court upheld the penalty of capital punishment for “their intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime (Israel) and kidnapping”, Mizan Online had said.

30 journalists in jails

At least 30 Iranian journalists are still imprisoned in connection with protests linked to the death of Mahsa Amini, the Tehran journalists’ association said on Wednesday. “Around 70 journalists” have been detained since mid-September, the association said in a statement.

Some have been released on bail while “30 journalists taken in for questioning are still detained”, it added on its Telegram messaging app channel where it published a list of those currently jailed.

Among those on the list are the two Iranian journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi who helped expose the case of Amini.

“Since the start of the protests, a large number of journalists have also been summoned” by the authorities, the organisation added, without elaborating.

The latest to be sentenced was sports journalist Ehsan Pirbornash, reformist newspaper Hammihan reported on Wednesday. It did not identify the charges against him but said he must serve 10 years in prison out of an 18-year sentence.

In late October, more than 300 Iranian journalists and photojournalists signed a statement to criticise the authorities for “arresting colleagues and stripping them of their civil rights after their detentions”, local media said at the time.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2023