Two Iranian men planned ‘violent attack’ in UK while spying on journalists and lawyer

Two Iranian men have been found guilty of spying on journalists and a lawyer in conduct that was likely to assist Iran’s intelligence service.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March last year in a bid to inflict violence on “subjects” in the UK.

These “subjects” included journalists for London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner.

The defendants were accused of visiting addresses linked to their targets, taking photos and videos, and using platforms such as ChatGPT to research them online.

The prosecution said Sepahvand intended to physically carry out a “violent attack” against at least one of the targets, while Farhad Javadi Manesh, who was also convicted of engaging in conduct likely to assist Iran’s intelligence service, assisted in planning.

Sepahvand lent forward and held his head in his hands when they were found guilty on Thursday after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was cleared of the same charge after jurors deliberated for 19 hours and nine minutes.

Manesh and Noori were acquitted of engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that serious violence against a person in the UK would be committed by others.

Frank Ferguson, chief Crown prosecutor of the CPS’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “This was a calculated operation to spy on those critical of the Iranian regime.

“Sepahvand and Manesh were promised rewards to send intelligence back to contacts in Iran, and Sepahvand himself was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit serious violence against their targets.

“Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place.

“Cases like this show Iranian intelligence’s willingness to use proxies to target the regime’s critics abroad.

“The CPS is alive to these ever-evolving threats and, through our work with Counter Terrorism Policing, stands ready to prosecute any hostile actors who might try and jeopardise our country’s security.”