Iranian men found guilty in UK of assisting Iranian intelligence

Two ​Iranian men were ‌found guilty on ​Thursday of spying on dissident journalists in Britain on ‌behalf of Iranian intelligence, a case British police said reflected increasing activity by Iran.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, ‌was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of ‌two offences and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, was convicted of one offence under Britain's National Security Act. A third ⁠man ​Shapoor ⁠Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all charges. Prosecutors said ⁠the men had been carrying out surveillance on journalists ​working for Iran International, a Persian-language television station ⁠which is critical of Iran's government, between August 2024 ⁠and ​March 2025.

This was being carried out on behalf of Iran's foreign intelligence service ⁠in order to attack them "as retribution for their criticism of ⁠the ⁠Iranian regime", prosecutors said.