Family of executed British-Iranian prevented by Iran authorities from seeing his body: report

The family of executed British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari were prevented from seeing his body and denied burial at a grave they had chosen for him at his birthplace, according to The Guardian. 

Akbari was executed sometime between last week and this week by Iranian authorities for allegedly spying for the UK intelligence service MI6. He confessed to the allegations under extreme torture. 

Akbari’s Tehran-based sister and daughter, who had been prevented from burying him in Shiraz, went to collect his body for burial in the state-allocated grave site in Tehran only to be informed that a man with the same name and details was already buried on Thursday. 

Alireza Akbari family say they have been prevented from seeing his body or burying him in his birthplace of Shiraz. They went today to bury him in Tehran cemetery, as instructed, only to be told a body with same details had been already buried in plot on Thursday. Sheer cruelty.

— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) January 16, 2023

This added to the agony of the family, who had been prevented from seeing him in prison and were never told when he would be executed. They had also been given hope that he might be freed before they received news of his death.

"We have never seen the body. We do not know if he is in that grave site. We do not know if he was executed on Thursday or Sunday, or even if the talk of parole was just to string us along. Perhaps even we do not know if he is dead or alive, because we cannot access the grave," a family member living outside of Iran told The Guardian.

"They are just playing with us. It is cruel and heartless. They have tried to destroy his reputation by fabricating that he is a traitor, and now this."

Iran widely uses the death penalty as a punishment and has reportedly sentenced dozens of people to death after taking part in anti-government protests which have engulfed the country. 

Four protestors have been executed so far, igniting outrage among Iranians around the world. 

Twenty-two-year-old karate champion Mehdi Karami was hanged on 7 January after being given only 15 minutes to defend himself in court, according to BBC Persian. 

Authorities are using sham trials to intimidate protestors who are demanding an end to Iran’s repressive clerical regime, which has ruled the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.