The family of an Iranian journalist allegedly targeted by Iranian spies was previously harassed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a court has heard.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged with offences under the National Security Act.
Their alleged “subjects” included two journalists for London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner, the court was told.
In a written statement read to the court on Wednesday, Hosseini said he moved to the US in 2000 and was given his own show on Iran International in 2008.
Two of his brothers and his sister were living in Iran, as well as his parents.
“The IRGC started harassing my brothers, sister and parents,” he told the court. “For example, the authorities would sometimes take my parents to the police station. The aim of this was to try to pressure me to go off air.”
He also claimed that he had received a number of death threats before moving to New York and, subsequently, being contacted by Iran International in 2024 about doing a show for the network, prompting a move to London.
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.
Sepahvand claims he was threatened into conducting surveillance against his will, but the prosecution described this as an “entirely bogus claim”, telling jurors he did it to get paid and have his theft conviction in Iran “fixed”.
In a voice note read to the court previously, Sepahvand told an associate he would “finish off” a target if he is paid £150,000.
The defendants are alleged 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.
There is no dispute that 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, and that he “deliberately did a bad job of it”, the prosecution said.
The Crown added that Manesh and Noori maintain that 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 deny all the charges.
The trial continues.
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