LONDON, Nov 12: Two Iranian men accused of spying on journalists working for a Persian-language broadcaster in London were found guilty of spying for Tehran on Thursday.
Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court in south London found Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service on behalf of the Iranian state.
A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all charges.
Guilty Man
“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.
He said the two men had been promised rewards for sending intelligence to Iran, while Sepahvand was willing to go beyond surveillance and commit serious acts of violence against their targets.
The targets included Iran International journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, as well as Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel. Iran International is banned by the Iranian government.
The defendants were accused of visiting addresses linked to their targets, taking photographs and videos, and using platforms such as ChatGPT to research them online.
“Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place,” Ferguson said.
