The pair have been promised rewards to ship intelligence again to Iran, whereas one was ready to commit a ‘violent assault’.
Revealed On 12 Nov 2026
Two Iranian males have been discovered responsible of spying for Tehran by a court docket in the UK after being accused of conducting surveillance on a number of folks, together with journalists for a Persian-language broadcaster in London.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, have been convicted on Thursday following a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court docket in south London for partaking in conduct more likely to help Iran’s intelligence service in a bid to inflict violence on “subjects” in the UK.
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These included journalists for Iran Worldwide, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and a founding member of UK Attorneys for Israel, Jonathan Turner. Iran Worldwide is banned by the federal government in Tehran.
A 3rd defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted on all fees.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was outlawed by the UK in July underneath new powers to counteract state threats, with penalties of as much as 14 years in jail for anybody convicted of supporting or helping the organisation.
“This was a calculated operation to spy on these important of the Iranian regime,” Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s particular crime and counterterrorism division, advised reporters.
He stated the pair have been promised rewards to ship intelligence again to Iran, whereas Sepahvand was keen to transcend surveillance to commit a “violent assault” towards at the very least one of many targets.
London’s Metropolitan Police stated this was the fourth case in recent years involving direct threats to Iranian journalists within the UK and that it’s “working exhausting to maintain them secure”.
“The risk from hostile states to the UK is rising and Iran continues to adapt its strategy to utilizing ‘proxies’,” stated Vicki Evans, deputy assistant commissioner on the Met.
“We’ve seen examples the place individuals who fly into the nation to hold out legal exercise after which depart shortly afterwards, others the place they use British nationals or, on this case, Iranian nationals with settled immigration standing,” she added.
Most recently, Iran has been linked with a plot against a United States-run military airbase in England.
Sepahvand and Manesh have been accused of visiting addresses linked to their targets, taking photographs and movies and utilizing platforms resembling ChatGPT to analysis them on-line.
The pair shall be sentenced at London’s Central Legal Court docket, higher often called the Outdated Bailey, on December 17.
