Iran used three men to spy on London-based journalists critical of the country’s regime intending to violently attack them, prosecutors said at the start of a criminal trial.
Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh and Shapoor Gelehali Khan Noori are all accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service by carrying out information gathering activities for Iran. Sepahvand, 41, is also accused of one count of preparing to commit serious violence against an individual, while the other two are accused of assisting him.
“These defendants were engaged in what is very obviously a form of spying,” William Emlyn Jones, a prosecution lawyer said on Tuesday at Woolwich Crown Court. “Their ultimate objective was that one or more than one of their targets would be subjected to serious violence — no doubt as retribution for their criticism of the Iranian Regime.”
The men are alleged to have surveilled London addresses and used open source intelligence to gain information related to journalists working for Iran International. The news organization has come under particular attack from the regime due to its support for opposition parties and its criticism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the jury was told.
All three men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
One of the targets of the group was Kambiz Hosseini, a prominent Iranian satirist and critic who hosts Iran International’s nightly show The Program . Hosseini was monitored by Noori and Manesh as the group sought to gather information about his movements. The prosecution alleges that this intelligence gathering was done to help prepare for a violent attack against the journalist, which would be carried out by Sepahvand.
Hosseini’s “family had suffered threats and intimidation from the authorities in Iran and in the end his siblings had to flee Iran,” Jones told the jury.
As well as Hosseini, the men are alleged to have carried out surveillance of another Iran International journalist Mojtaba Pour Mohsen.
Sepahvand is alleged to have carried out the work in return for money and to have a series of prosecutions for theft against him in Iran withdrawn.
“They made me a promise and said: ‘We’ll sort out your matter, your court case, and we’ll give you £150,000 as well,” Sepahvand said in a voice message sent to a contact in Iran and read out to the jury. “If the person, the target, is inside, they pay the £150,000 and I’ll finish him or her off.”
Sepahvand had briefing documents in his phone, containing information about the activities and lives of Pour Mohsen and Hosseini in London — including the name of the latter’s dog.