Two Iranian men were convicted on Thursday of spying on dissident journalists in Britain on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the first successful prosecutions of Iranian nationals under the United Kingdom's National Security Act.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of two offences, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, of one offence, under the 2023 legislation enacted to counter threats from foreign states.
Prosecutors said the pair carried out surveillance and reconnaissance between August 2024 and March 2025 on journalists working for Iran International, the Persian-language broadcaster critical of Tehran, and on Jonathan Turner, a barrister who chairs the group UK Lawyers for Israel. The journalists targeted included Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini.
Sepahvand was also convicted of engaging in preparatory conduct intended to facilitate serious acts of violence; Manesh was acquitted of that second charge. A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all charges after the six-week trial.
The Times reported that Sepahvand, a former bodybuilder who arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry in 2016 and was granted asylum after converting to Christianity, had been offered 150,000 pounds to carry out "serious violence" and was paid 5,000 pounds by IRGC intelligence officers who sent him instructions.
Vicki Evans, the Metropolitan Police's senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said Sepahvand was directed by the IRGC or "middlemen" for Iranian intelligence, and that the case "highlights the continuing and increasing threat to the UK from Iran." Police said the convictions marked the first time Iranian nationals had been prosecuted under the National Security Act.
Tehran has repeatedly denied involvement in spying, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was "disturbed" by the arrests of Sepahvand and others in May 2025.
Both men were remanded in custody and will be sentenced on December 17.
