Two Iranian men who spied on journalists working for a Persian-language broadcaster in London were found guilty Thursday of spying for Iran.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, were convicted of engaging in conduct likely to assist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC was outlawed by the U.K. in July under new powers to counteract state threats, with penalties of up to 14 years in prison for anyone convicted of supporting or assisting the organization.
A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted on all charges.
«This was a calculated operation to spy on those critical of the Iranian regime,» said Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter-terrorism division.
He said the pair were promised rewards in exchange for sending intelligence back to Iran, while Sepahvand was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit serious violence against their targets.
These included Iran International journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, and Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel. Iran International is banned by the government in Tehran.
London’s Metropolitan Police said this was the fourth case in recent years involving a direct threat to Iran International journalists and that it is «working hard to keep them safe.»
«The threat from hostile states to the U.K. is increasing and Iran continues to adapt its approach to using ‘proxies’,» said Vicki Evans, a deputy assistant commissioner at the London police.
«We have seen examples of people who fly into the country to carry out criminal activity and then leave shortly afterwards, to using British nationals or, in this case, Iranian nationals with settled immigration status,» she added.
The Iranian Embassy in the U.K. has said that it «categorically rejects» allegations of involvement in «violent activities or incidents in the United Kingdom.»
The pair will be sentenced at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, on Dec. 17.
