Two men found guilty of spying for Iran over plan to target journalists

Two men of Iranian origin were found guilty of engaging in conduct likely to assist Tehran’s intelligence services in a plot to target journalists and a lawyer in the UK. According to The Guardian, Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March last year in an attempt to inflict violence on subjects in the UK. The BBC reported that the verdicts were delivered at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday.

The targets included two journalists for the London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, a media production professional, and Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel, as reported by The Guardian and the BBC. Sky News noted that the defendants arrived in Britain illegally, with Sepahvand arriving in the back of a lorry and Manesh in a small boat. The Guardian stated that Sepahvand came to the UK between 2016 and 2022. According to the BBC, the pair later became asylum seekers who had been granted temporary leave to remain.

The Guardian reported that Sepahvand chatted on WhatsApp to his handler, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander named Amin, while spying on Pourmohsen. Sepahvand used the AI platform ChatGPT to find the home address of Pourmohsen and hoped to be paid £150,000 to carry out a violent attack and help to finish him off. The BBC noted this is the first time ChatGPT case search history has been presented in a state threat case. Prosecutors stated Sepahvand hoped to get a conviction for theft in Iran quashed by participating in the surveillance, according to the BBC and Sky News.

Sky News reported that Sepahvand and Manesh denied engaging in conduct likely to assist Iran's intelligence service, but both were found guilty. A third man, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, also known as Shapoor Noori, 57, was cleared of the same charge by the jury, according to The Guardian and Sky News. The Guardian reported that Manesh claimed he took a picture of the Iran International site because it was a beautiful building and did not know they were working with Iranian intelligence services, while Sepahvand claimed his family was being threatened and that he never intended to go through with the hit.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Sepahvand and Manesh ahead of sentencing at the Old Bailey on 17 December, as reported by The Guardian and the BBC.