Iran has arrested an Iranian-British anthropologist and sentenced an American to death for alleged spying.

British-Iranian academic Kameel Ahmady has been held by the Iranians over what a judiciary spokesman said were suspected links to institutes connected to foreign intelligence services.

Acknowledging Mr Ahmady's arrest for the first time, spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said the case was in the initial investigation phase.

Mr Ahmady's wife, Shafagh Rahmani, first spoke out in August about her husband's detention.

Part of Mr Ahmady's work included investigating female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iran.


The anthropologist, who was born in Iranian Kurdistan but moved to Britain in his 20s, found that FGM is practised in four Iranian provinces and made a documentary about it.

Image: Iran has also confirmed it has sentenced an American 'spy' to death

"I was very shocked to discover that my grandmothers, mother and sister had all undergone FGM," he told Reuters in 2015.

"That was the trigger - the feeling that, God, something really inhuman has happened here.

"I took the initial data back to London but nobody including UNICEF really believed me, so I went back to Iran with my camera to shoot a short documentary. The research took off from there."

Meanwhile, Mr Esmaili confirmed a person charged with spying for the United States has been sentenced to death.

An appeal has been lodged and will be considered by the country's appeals court.

The spokesman would not comment further.

Mr Ahmady also confirmed the appeals court had sentenced two Iranians, Ali Nafarieh and Mohammad Ali Babapour, to 10 years for spying for the US.

A third man, Mohammad Aminnassab, was sentenced to 10 years on charges of spying for Britain.

The announcements come as Iranian-US tensions mount, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urging world leaders to "confront" the US.

Image: President Rouhani has urged world leaders to 'confront America'

"The international community must confront America's hostile and unilateralist approach by taking a definitive decision and effective actions," Mr Rouhani said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

In August, Iran said it convicted Aras Amiri for spying. She had worked for the British Council, which is a non-political organisation that works in education, arts and culture.

Ms Amiri has been jailed for the past year while her case was being considered.

She was sentenced to 10 years.

The arrest and sentence of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman serving a five-year prison sentence under spy charges, has been repeatedly criticised.