Three alleged Iranian spies carried out surveillance and reconnaissance to target journalists in the UK as part of a plan to commit “serious violence”, a court has heard.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, face trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged with offences under the National Security Act.
Their “subjects” included journalists for London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International as well as a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner, the court was told.
The defendants are said to have visited addresses linked to their targets, taken photos and videos, and used platforms like ChatGPT to research them online between August 2024 and March last year.
The prosecution alleges Sepahvand intended to physically carry out a “violent attack” against at least one of the targets, while Manesh and Noori assisted in planning.
Opening the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC said people who criticise the Iranian regime “do so at their peril”, with Iran International having “come under particular attack” over its anti-regime stance.
Emlyn Jones also referred to an Iranian leader’s 1989 call for Sir Salman Rushdie’s death because of his novel The Satanic Verses, and the stabbing of the author in New York in 2022.
“In this trial, we are concerned with steps being taken, here in London, on behalf of the Iranian regime, to target journalists and others considered to be hostile to, or even just critical of, the Iranian regime,” the prosecutor said.
“The evidence we will call illustrates that these three defendants carried out surveillance and reconnaissance, visiting addresses linked to their targets, taking photos, taking videos, doing online research about them.
“That information is of obvious value to a foreign intelligence service seeking to monitor and then target these individuals, and the prosecution case is that that was exactly why these three defendants were carrying out surveillance and reconnaissance to locate and target at least two journalists associated with that news agency Iran International.
“The defendants were engaged in what is very obviously a form of spying.
“It is the prosecution case that their ultimate objective was that one or perhaps more than one of these targets would be subjected to serious violence – no doubt as retribution for their criticism of the Iranian regime and to try to silence and deter others who might dare to voice such criticism.”
There is no dispute the three defendants conducted the surveillance and reconnaissance, the jury was told.
Sepahvand accepts he was doing so for the benefit of the Iranian regime but claims he was threatened or bullied into doing it against his will, and that he “deliberately did a bad job of it”, the prosecution said.
The Crown added that Manesh and Noori claim they did not know they were carrying out the surveillance to assist the Iranian intelligence service.
The defendants are charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service.
Sepahvand, of St John’s Wood, north London, is also charged with engaging in surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research with the intention to commit serious violence against a person in the UK.
Manesh, of Brent, and Noori, of Ealing, are also charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that serious violence against a person in the UK would be committed by others.
The three men, who deny all the charges, were assisted by interpreters in the dock.
The trial continues.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.