Three alleged Iranian spies have been charged with targeting UK journalists, following a major counter-terrorism investigation.
The three men — Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55 — were charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024, and February 16, 2025, British police said.
A London court on Saturday, local time, heard the three men had allegedly targeted Britain-based journalists connected with Iran International, a broadcaster that is critical of the Iranian government.
The charges come at a time of intense scrutiny of suspected Iran-backed activities in Britain.
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Interior Minister Yvette Cooper said Britain would take “separate action” to address the serious issues raised by the case of the three men.
“Iran must be held to account for its actions,” she said in a statement.
“We must also strengthen our powers to protect our national security as we will not tolerate growing state threats on our soil.”
The three men were remanded in custody and will appear at a preliminary hearing at the central criminal court on June 6.
Mr Sepahvand, whose application for bail was denied, arrived in Britain in 2016 concealed in a lorry, the court heard, while the other two men arrived by irregular means, the government said, including via small boats across the Channel.
Yvette Cooper said Iran would be “held to account”. (Reuters: Justin Tallis/Pool )
The charges against the three men come after police arrested eight men including seven Iranians earlier in May, in two separate operations Ms Cooper said were some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.
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The court also heard Mr Sepahvand was charged with surveillance and intending to commit serious violence against a person in Britain.
Mr Manesh and Mr Noori were charged with surveillance and the intention that serious violent acts would be committed by others.
Britain’s domestic spy chief Ken McCallum said last year that officers had responded since 2022 to 20 Tehran-backed plots that potentially posed lethal threats to UK citizens and residents.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said he was “disturbed” to learn that Iranian citizens had been arrested by British authorities.
He said Tehran was ready to assist in investigations if “credible allegations of misconduct are established”, while another foreign ministry official rejected any accusations against Iran as “baseless”.
The British government has placed Iran on the highest tier of its foreign influence register, requiring Tehran to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK.
Reuters