Two Iranian men have been found guilty by a court in the UK of spying on dissident journalists in Britain on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a case police said reflected increasing espionage activity by Tehran.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of two offences and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, was convicted of one offence under Britain's National Security Act.
Police said the convictions marked the first time Iranians had been successfully prosecuted under the National Security Act, introduced in 2023 to counter threats from foreign states including Iran, which British authorities say have risen sharply.
Vicki Evans, Britain's senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said Sepahvand was directed by the IRGC, or "middlemen" for Iranian intelligence, and the case "highlights the continuing and increasing threat to the UK from Iran".
Tehran has repeatedly denied involvement in spying or any similar activity, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was "disturbed" by the arrests of Sepahvand and others in May 2025.
Prosecutors said at the start of Sepahvand and Manesh's trial last month that the pair had been carrying out surveillance on journalists working for Iran International, a Farsi-language television station that is critical of Iran's government, between August 2024 and March 2025.
Sepahvand was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service and of a second charge relating to what prosecutors said was a plan for Sepahvand to attack one or more of its targets.
Manesh was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service, but was acquitted of the second charge relating to preparing for an attack. They will both be sentenced next month.
A third man, Shapoor Noori, 57, was acquitted of both charges.
One of the targets of the group was Kambiz Hosseini, an Iranian satirist and critic who hosts London-based Iran International’s nightly show The Program.
Mr Hosseini was monitored by the group as it sought to gather information about his movements.
The prosecution alleged that this intelligence gathering was done to help prepare for a violent attack against the journalist, which would be carried out by Mr Sepahvand.
“These defendants were engaged in what is very obviously a form of spying,” prosecutor William Emlyn Jones told Woolwich Crown Court in London.
“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. Eliminating hostile or critical voices has effectively become a staple policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
