⚖️ Two Iranian men convicted in UK of spying on Tehran's critics
A London court found two Iranian men guilty of helping Iran's intelligence service by watching journalists and others, while a third man was cleared.
The mystery
Journalists who report on Iran from abroad say they live under constant watch. A UK verdict now puts names and a court ruling on that fear. Police say threats from hostile states are growing.
The answer
On Thursday, at the end of a trial lasting six weeks at Woolwich Crown Court in south London, Mostafa Sepahvand (aged 41) and Farhad Javadi Manesh (aged 46) were found guilty of actions likely to help Iran's spy agency. Prosecutors said they carried out surveillance on people in Britain, including two journalists from the Persian-language channel Iran International, Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and Jonathan Turner, who helped set up the group UK Lawyers for Israel. A third defendant, 57-year-old Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, was acquitted of all charges. Chief prosecutor Frank Ferguson said the two men had been promised rewards for passing information to Iran, and that Sepahvand was ready to carry out a violent attack on at least one target. According to the Met, Britain has now seen four such cases lately in which Iranian reporters faced direct threats. Britain banned Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in July.
Now think about this
How can countries protect journalists in exile when the threats come from people hired to blend in?
