London court finds 2 Iranian men guilty of spying for Tehran

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Two Iranian men have been found guilty of spying on journalists in London for Tehran

Two Iranian men have been found guilty of spying on journalists in London for Tehran

LONDON -- Two Iranian men who spied on journalists working for a Persian-language broadcaster in London were found guilty Thursday of spying for Tehran.

Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court in south London found Mostafa Sepahvand, 41 and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, to be working on behalf of the Iranian state and convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all offenses against him.

“This was a calculated operation to spy on those critical of the Iranian regime,” said Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter-terrorism division.

He said the pair were promised rewards to send intelligence back to Iran, while Sepahvand was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit serious violence against their targets.

These included journalists for Iran International, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner. Iran International is banned by the government in Tehran.

The defendants were accused of visiting addresses linked to their targets, taking photos and videos, and using platforms such as ChatGPT to research them online.

“Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place,” Ferguson said.

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