London Jury Convicts Two Iranian Men of Assisting Iranian Intelligence in Surveillance of UK Journalists

Two days after the U.S. Justice Department unsealed its indictment alleging an Iran-directed plot against RAF Fairford, a separate UK case produced convictions. On Thursday, Nov. 12, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service. The service was Iran's.

A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was cleared of the same charge. The verdicts followed a six-week trial.

What the jury heard

Prosecutors said the two men were tasked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to monitor targets in the UK between August 2024 and March 2025. They visited addresses linked to the targets, took photos and videos, and researched them online.

The targets included Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, journalists at the London-based Persian-language broadcaster Iran International. Also named were Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel, and a media production professional.

Police seized 534GB of data. It showed the pair were given documents with photos of targets, work addresses, the make and colour of their cars, and even the names of pets. They then used ChatGPT for further research.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter-Terrorism Policing, said it was the first time ChatGPT search history had been presented as evidence in a state threat case.

Violence, money and a handler

Sepahvand was convicted of more than surveillance. According to prosecutors, he intended to carry out a "violent attack" on at least one target. Manesh, who helped with planning, was acquitted of that charge.

Prosecutors said Sepahvand asked for £150,000 in exchange for "finishing off" a target, stressing that he would "do it." The court heard WhatsApp exchanges in which an IRGC commander known as Amin sent him pictures of Pourmohsen's office. "I'll go tomorrow," Sepahvand replied.

Hosseini, 51, a satirist and standup comedian, had to leave his home and stop performing. He received a message with a photo of his car saying it would blow up the next time he started the engine.

Bill Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, told the court that "eliminating hostile, critical or dissident actors overseas is a staple policy of the Islamic republic."

The defence and the motive

Sepahvand told the court he took part out of fear of the consequences of refusing. Prosecutors called that "entirely bogus."

In voice notes to an Iranian contact, he said he had been promised that a theft conviction in Iran would be "sorted out." Prosecutors said that was part of his motivation. The trial also showed that Sepahvand felt mistreated by his handlers, who had not paid him.

Evans said that pattern is common. People who work for foreign states "are often promised money and lots of other things but they rarely receive what they've been offered."

Iran has denied involvement in plots on British soil.

Proxies, and how these men got here

Both men are from west London and were granted temporary leave to remain after claiming asylum. They arrived in the UK illegally between 2016 and 2022. Sepahvand came in the back of a lorry and Manesh in a small boat.

Evans said Iran keeps adapting. "The threat from hostile states to the UK is increasing and Iran continues to adapt its approach to using 'proxies,'" she said. Some operatives fly in, commit crimes and leave. Others, like these two, are Iranian nationals with settled immigration status.

The Metropolitan Police said this was the fourth case in recent years involving direct threats to Iranian journalists in the UK. British authorities described it, as reported, as the first convictions of Iranian nationals under the National Security Act 2023.

Last month, 19-year-old Norwegian Johannes Natland was jailed for life for agreeing to carry out a hit in Huddersfield for the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish criminal group backed by Iran's government.

The UK proscribed the IRGC in July under new state-threats powers. Anyone convicted of supporting or assisting the organisation now faces up to 14 years in prison.

The link to Fairford

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an eight-count superseding indictment against Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani. The Justice Department alleges they supported the IRGC and Kata'ib Hizballah in nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the U.S., including the September plot against RAF Fairford. Those are allegations. Mohajeri and al-Hassani are not in U.S. custody.

In the UK, Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, and Nouman Essghir, 24, have been charged over Fairford. Abdulkarim faces a charge of conduct likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service. Essghir is accused of entering a prohibited place for a purpose harmful to UK safety or interests. The Sepahvand and Manesh trial is a separate prosecution with no reported link to those defendants.

Sentencing for Sepahvand and Manesh is still to come. Both face the prospect of long prison terms, and Sepahvand's conviction for preparing violence puts him in the more serious category.