Two men of Iranian origin, Mostafa Sepahvand and Farhad Javadi Manesh, have been found guilty in a London court of attempting to assist Tehran’s intelligence services in targeting journalists and other critics in the United Kingdom. The convictions stem from surveillance and reconnaissance activities carried out between August 2024 and March 2025, aimed at individuals deemed hostile to the Iranian regime.
Sepahvand, 41, and Manesh, 46, entered the UK illegally between 2016 and 2022—Sepahvand via a lorry and Manesh by small boat. They were recruited through social media by a handler identified as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Amin. Using platforms such as WhatsApp and the AI service ChatGPT, the pair gathered personal information on their intended targets, including photographs, addresses and online profiles.
Their surveillance list included two journalists for the London‑based Persian broadcaster Iran International—Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini—as well as Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel. In December 2024, Sepahvand reportedly visited Pourmohsen’s home and communicated with Amin about the location, expressing a willingness to carry out a violent attack for a payment of £150,000.
Hearing at Woolwich Crown Court, prosecutors highlighted that the defendants’ actions were part of a broader tactic employed by hostile states: hiring “proxies” to conduct covert operations on behalf of foreign security services, often with little knowledge of the specific targets or motives. The case follows the recent sentencing of a Norwegian teenager, Johannes Natland, who was jailed for life after agreeing to carry out a hit in Huddersfield for a Swedish crime group linked to Iran.
Bill Emlyn Jones KC, the prosecutor, underscored the Iranian regime’s intolerance for dissent, noting that Iran International’s editorial stance—supporting opposition groups and opposing the Islamic Republic—made it a prime target. The court’s ruling sends a clear message that the United Kingdom will not tolerate foreign interference aimed at silencing critical voices.
Source: The Guardian World
Read the original article
Editorial note: This is an original news report prepared from the attributed source material with AI assistance. It is not a reproduction or translation of the original article.
