Alireza Akbari appears in heavily edited confession aired on Iranian TV

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

47% : It is understood senior Iranian government officials have urged the family, spread between Britain, Canada and Iran, not to speak publicly, taken as a sign that there is still hope of a last-minute reprieve.
39% : The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, on Wednesday demanded his release while the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, on Thursday said the British ambassador to Tehran should be withdrawn if Akbari is killed.
38% : He had been taken to solitary confinement in Rajaei Shahr prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran.
36% : Kearns was speaking in a debate on Iran in the Commons in which overwhelming cross-party support was voiced for Britain to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation.
34% : In the video, which was aired on Thursday and appeared to be heavily edited, Akbari was also asked about the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who was shot dead in in Tehran in 2020.
34% :Iran has a history of airing enforced confessions in high-profile cases, and the video, alongside lists of Akbari's alleged crimes posted on social media, looked like an attempt to create a public mood ahead of his planned execution.

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