Two men found guilty of spying for Iran over plan to target journalists

Two Iranian nationals who arrived in the UK illegally have been found guilty of spying for Iran in the first prosecution of its kind under the National Security Act. Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, were convicted at the Old Bailey on Thursday of engaging in conduct likely to assist Iran's intelligence service, Sky News reported. A third man, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was cleared of the charge.

Sepahvand carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March 2025 with the goal of inflicting violence on targets in the UK, the prosecution said. Among his targets were Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, journalists for London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International, and Jonathan Turner, a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel. He visited addresses linked to his targets, took photos and videos, and used platforms such as ChatGPT to research them online. The prosecution said Sepahvand intended to carry out a "violent attack" against at least one of the men.

Sepahvand boasted of contacts inside the Iranian embassy in London and said he wanted £150,000 to "finish off" one Iran International journalist, the trial heard. He was also sent "tasking documents" from Iranian contacts believed to have been members of, or working for, the Iranian intelligence agency. In one message shown to jurors, he was told: "You are expected to hit or kill the journalist." In a later voice note he complained about how little he had been paid for conducting surveillance, before adding: "They pay the £150,000, and I'll finish them off."

Sepahvand, of St John's Wood, north London, hoped by his actions to get a conviction for theft in Iran quashed. He was also convicted of engaging in surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research with the intention to commit serious violence against a person in the UK. Manesh and Noori, both of London, 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.

Counter-terrorism police said it is the first time Iranian nationals have been prosecuted for National Security Act offences. 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. Cases like this show Iranian intelligence's willingness to use proxies to target the regime's critics abroad."

The Metropolitan Police said sentencing will take place at the Old Bailey on 17 December. The Met's deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the arrests prevented serious violence from being inflicted on one or more individuals in the UK. She said the activity reflects a pattern of Iran targeting Persian language media in the UK, particularly Iran International, and that this is the fourth case in recent years involving direct threats to Iran International journalists.