Two Iranian men were found guilty on Thursday of engaging in conduct likely to assist Iran’s intelligence service. Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, were convicted at Woolwich Crown Court in south London.
The pair targeted individuals in the UK, including journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini who work for Iran International, and Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel. Iran International is banned by the government in Tehran.
A third defendant, 57-year-old Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, was acquitted of all charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service stated the operation was calculated to spy on critics of the Iranian regime. Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the special crime and counterterrorism division, told reporters the pair were promised rewards for sending intelligence.
Ferguson said that Sepahvand was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit a violent attack against at least one of the targets. Court details showed the defendants visited addresses linked to their targets, took photos and videos, and used platforms like ChatGPT to research them online.
London’s Metropolitan Police reported this was the fourth case in recent years involving direct threats to Iranian journalists in the UK. Vicki Evans, deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said the threat from hostile states is growing as Iran adapts its approach to using proxies.
Evans said authorities have seen instances of individuals flying in to carry out criminal activity before leaving, as well as cases using British nationals or Iranian nationals with settled immigration status. Iran has also been linked with a plot against a United States-run military airbase in England.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was outlawed by the UK in July under new powers to counteract state threats. The legislation carries penalties of up to 14 years in prison for supporting or assisting the organisation.
Sepahvand and Manesh are scheduled to be sentenced at London’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, on December 17.
