Two alleged spies for Iran are accused of carrying out “hostile” surveillance on London’s Jewish community, including at a college and Britain’s oldest synagogue, a court has heard.
Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, and Alireza Farasati, 22, are accused of engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between July 9 and August 15 last year.
It is said Shahsavani identified “targets” for surveillance, including the Israeli embassy and consulate in London, the JW3 community centre in Finchley Road and the Bevis Marks Synagogue in Aldgate, which is Britain’s oldest synagogue.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told a woman living in the UK, who has been accused of being a Mossad agent, is also alleged to have been targeted.
Shahsavani and Farasati appeared in the dock together on Thursday morning to face a charge brought under the National Security Act 2023.
A home in Colchester, the Sternberg Centre for Judaism, which is the home of the Leo Baeck College, schools, a synagogue, a museum in Finchley, and the Community Security Trust are also alleged to have been targeted.
Louise Attrill, prosecuting, told the court: “The two defendants are suspected of assisting the Iranian intelligence service by conducting hostile surveillance of locations and individuals linked to the Israeli and Jewish community.”
Shahsavani, a delivery driver, is said to have “tasked” Farasati “to conduct the surveillance activity against Israeli and Jewish sites and possible targets linked to the Iranian intelligence service”.
It is said Shahsavani and Farasati had been “gathering information and undertaking reconnaissance of targets, and knew or ought to have known their conduct was likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service”.
Shahsavani, a father-of-two of Sandringham Gardens in North Finchley, is a dual Iranian and British national and has lived in the UK since 2009.
Farasati, of Sanday Drive in Colindale, who is a trained barber, is an Iranian national and moved to the UK as a 17-year-old in 2021.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring remanded both defendants into custody ahead of a hearing at the Old Bailey on April 17.
Both men have been in custody since they were first arrested by the Metropolitan Police on Friday, March 6.
Neither of the defendants entered a plea during Thursday’s court hearing. However, Alphege Bell, for Farasati, told the court he intends to fight the charge.
Shahsavani, wearing a blue puffa jacket, was seen blowing a kiss towards the public gallery as he was led away to the cells.
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