Iran’s execution of a dual British-Iranian national is sending shock waves all the way to London and comes amid a dramatic increase in the hardline regime’s deliberate killing of protesters, some of whom are only teenagers. 

Prime Minister Sunak of Britain called the weekend execution of Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister, a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime.” The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, had urged Tehran not to proceed with the execution, but that appeal was ignored.

Mr. Cleverly latterly stated that the execution “deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms” and that “this will not stand unchallenged.” Akbari had been sentenced to death on dubious charges of “corruption in the land” and espionage. In an audio broadcast on the BBC last Wednesday, he claimed he was tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he had not committed. 

From Westminster, the chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns, told the BBC’s Radio 4 that the execution was “another horrifying example of the Iranian regime — because they feel they are cornered, because there is such significant pressure from sanctions — weaponizing British nationals and industrializing hostage-taking.”

Akbari’s family claimed that he had been lured back to Iran from London by a former friend, only to be interrogated, incarcerated, and tortured for several hundred hours at Tehran’s Evin prison.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, condemned Akbari’s execution in a statement that read in part, “The execution of a European citizen is a frightening precedent that will be followed closely by the EU. The European Union calls on Iran to refrain from any future executions and to pursue a coherent policy towards the abolition of the death penalty.” 

The European Parliament is due to  vote on an amendment by a Dutch lawmaker, Thijs Reutent, to classify the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran as a terrorist organization. America has already done so, and Britain is expected to do so as well. 

Whether designating the IRGC as a terrorist group would make a difference in Iran is difficult to say, but for now the Iranian authorities appear to be undeterred in their clampdown on dissent. Iranian police reportedly killed a 17-year-old student after he chanted anti-regime slogans during a protest at his school in the Andiseh section of Tehran.

An Iranian broadcaster attempted to pass off the murder as a suicide, but according to multiple reports Alirera Fily was found hanged in his father’s shop with his shirt buttons and trouser pockets torn off. An Iranian journalist said via Twitter that Fily had experienced problems with the IRGC and had been expelled from school.

The journalist also said that plainclothes officers had seen images of photos of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, snatched on his cellphone while he was interrogated. It was not immediately clear how long the interval was between the teenager’s arrest and the interrogation and execution. The latter appears to have taken place on Saturday. 

Executions, particularly of young adult men, are now occurring at what appears to be a faster pace than in past months, as the regime rampages in its attempt to crush dissent. A correspondent for the Radio Radicale in Italy reported that another youth, Abolfazl Adinezadeh, was killed in a barrage of 24 bullets fired by the IRGC in the direction of protestors at Mashhad, apparently on Sunday.

The station tweeted a photo of Adinezadeh’s father curled atop his son’s makeshift grave. It also reported that a 25-year-old protester was hanged at dawn on Sunday. 

According to an Iranian human rights advocacy group, Hrana, Iran’s hardline Islamic regime has killed 37 minors since the nationwide protests began last September in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. The same group claims that there are currently at least 110 prisoners who risk the death penalty for their involvement in protests against the regime.

The Economist reported that the Tehran regime has “locked up nearly 20,000 people, including top footballers, film stars, journalists and students.” While the country’s reviled head mullah, Ayatollah Khamenei, seems to have quelled many of the protests, the magazine reported, “Iranians are still seething.” On an annual basis, the only country that executes more people than the Islamic Republic of Iran is Communist China.