UK court convicts 2 Iranian men of spying on journalists

Two Iranian men were found guilty of spying in dissident journalists in Britain on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Thursday.

British counterterrorism police said the case reflected intensifying hostile Iranian activity in the country, an issue that recently made headlines amid the security scare at the RAF Fairford airbase that's a major operational site in Europe for the US Air Force.  

The men, both in their 40s, were arrested last year, with Iran repeatedly rejecting the allegations against them. 

What did the court rule? 

The Woolwich Crown Court in London convicted one of the Iranian citizens not just of spying on journalists working for the Persian-language dissident TV channel Iran International, but of plotting a violent attack against one or more of them. 

The second individual had also faced charges of plotting an attack but was only convicted of spying on the reporters.

One of the convicted defendants said he was acting under duress after his family was threatened, and the other said he did not know that his actions were assisting Iranian intelligence. 

A third defendant, a 57-year-old Iranian man, was acquitted of all charges. 

The men were accused of engaging in conduct likely to assist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's multi-discipline military force that's seen as closer to the country's religious leadership and more influential than its regular armed forces.

The UK formally designated the IRGC as a threat to national security in July, meaning that supporting or assisting the organization can carry penalties of up to 14 years in prison as part of new rules on national security and state threats. 

Sentencing in this case is still pending and is scheduled for mid-December. 

"This was a calculated operation to spy on those critical of the Iranian regime," said Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counter-terrorism division.

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

"Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place," prosecutor Ferguson said.

Senior ‌National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing Vicki Evans said that the IRGC or "middlemen" for Iranian intelligence were directing the plot.

Iran's government had repeatedly denied the allegations, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying he was "disturbed" by the trio's arrests last May.

UK releases air base plot suspects

Not the first plot targeting Iran International 

There have been four cases targeting the Persian language television channel Iran International since late 2023.

In July, two Romanian men were jailed for stabbing a journalist outside his home in 2024. 

A spokesman for the broadcaster's parent company, Volant Media, said in a statement that Thursday's verdicts "don't make the lives of our journalists any safer so long as the Islamic Republic of Iran continues its campaign of death threats and violence against them." 

Iran International reported that a British barrister was also one of the targets.

What other alleged signs of Iranian hostile activity in the UK are there? 

British law enforcement has been warning of an uptick of hostile Iranian activity in recent years, particularly since the US military operations against Tehran began earlier this year. 

Most notably, the UK has accused Iran of being behind a suspected plot targeting the RAF Fairford base in September, after which US President Donald Trump withdrew some long-range bombers from the site. 

Three men were indicted in the US in relation that plot this week, while two others currently face charges in the UK. 

But beyond this, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence agency Ken MacCullum said in October that Iran-linked operations had led to more than 50 arrests in the last year. He also said known cases of so-called state threats had more than quadrupled in a decade. 

Counter-terrorism police chief Evans said she expected this trend to continue. 

France this week also accused Iran of being behind a cyberattack targeting refrigeration units at hundreds of supermarkets in October, although Iran denied any involvement. 

European governments are on heightened alert for so-called hybrid warfare tactics, from Russia as well as Iran, amid the geopolitical tensions of recent years. New technologies like low-cost drones and AI are also threatening to make such activities cheaper, harder to trace, and potentially more effective.