Two Iranian men were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court in London on Thursday of spying on dissident journalists in Britain on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guards — the first time Iranian nationals have been convicted under Britain's National Security Act 2023, police and prosecutors said.
Source: Reuters
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, was convicted of two offences: assisting a foreign intelligence service and preparatory conduct linked to what prosecutors said was a plan to attack one or more of his targets. Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service but acquitted of the preparatory-conduct charge. A third man, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all charges.
Source: Crown Prosecution Service
Who they watched
Prosecutors said the men carried out surveillance between August 2024 and March 2025 on journalists working for Iran International, the London-based Persian-language television station that is critical of Iran's government and banned by the Iranian regime. The targets named in court reporting included Iran International journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and Jonathan Turner, a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel.
Source: PA via The Oldham Times
Videos, images and text messages found on the men's devices showed Sepahvand carrying out surveillance on targets' homes and work addresses to locate other journalists linked to the channel, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Photographs, Google searches and addresses were found on his phone relating to a target who had already left home over security concerns and temporarily moved into a hotel in west London, and cell-site data placed him in a London area in late 2024 while he surveilled a separate target. The CPS said Sepahvand led the contact with handlers in Iran while Manesh fed information, photographs and videos through to him, and that both had been promised rewards — in Sepahvand's case, tens of thousands of pounds.
Source: Crown Prosecution Service
What the court and police said
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: 'This was a calculated operation to spy on those critical of the Iranian regime. Sepahvand and Manesh were promised rewards to send intelligence back to contacts in Iran and Sepahvand himself was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit serious violence against their targets. Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place. Cases like this show Iranian intelligence's willingness to use proxies to target the regime's critics abroad.' The jury had deliberated for 19 hours and nine minutes, PA reported.
Source: Crown Prosecution Service / PA
Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing Vicki Evans said Sepahvand was directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or by 'middlemen' for Iranian intelligence, and that the case 'highlights the continuing and increasing threat to the UK from Iran'. Police said the convictions were the first of Iranian nationals under the National Security Act, introduced in 2023 to counter threats from foreign states, which the authorities say have risen sharply.
Source: Reuters
Iran's position, and the background
Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in spying or any such activity, Reuters reported, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said he was 'disturbed' by the arrests of Sepahvand and others in May 2025. The allegations against the men are the court's findings after trial; Tehran's denial stands on the record alongside them.
Source: Reuters
The trial was the fourth case in Britain relating to Iran International since late 2023, Reuters reported in its updated dispatch, including two Romanian men jailed in July for stabbing a journalist outside his home in 2024. Journalists for the channel have repeatedly said they face threats for reporting that is critical of Tehran.
Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse
What happens next
Sepahvand and Manesh will be sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 17 December 2026, the CPS said. The verdict also lands while Britain and its allies say Iranian intelligence activity in Europe is increasing — a claim Tehran denies — and while the wider Iran war and the closed Strait of Hormuz keep UK-Iran relations under strain.