Two Romanians have been sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison for stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati in a plot orchestrated by the Iranian regime.
Mr Zeraati was left bleeding in the street after he was attacked outside his home in Wimbledon, south-west London, in March 2024.
Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were both found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in June.
Stana has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and Badea to eight years for the attack.
Passing sentence at the Old Bailey in London, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb accepted the prosecution’s case that the attack was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state, which increased the time the pair must spend in jail.
She told the court “the victim was not selected at random” but as a “prominent broadcaster for Iran International that was highly critical of the regime”.
The judge said Stana knew, or ought to have known, that a foreign power was behind the attack but accepted that Badea would not have known.
Chief Superintendent Kris Wright, head of protective security operations for Counter Terrorism Policing, said that international co-operation is proving vital to thwarting state threats.
"Our recent casework shows an increasing use of so-called ‘proxies’ by hostile foreign states to conduct illegal activity and attacks in the UK," he said. “Our message to anyone being asked to carry out activity by foreign states or even unknown entities online is to think again, because you will be caught and you will face justice.”
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court that Badea and Stana were motivated by money but were acting as criminal "proxies" for the Iranian government.
Mr Zeraati was stabbed three times in the thigh in what prosecutors described as “a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”.
Badea wielded the knife, and another man called David Andrei, who is still in Romania and was not on trial, was also part of the attack, according to the victim.
The attackers were seen laughing as they fled in a blue Mazda 3 getaway car driven by Stana. The three then left the UK on a flight to Geneva.
The Met Police said that “hostile reconnaissance” was first carried out by Stana in March 2023, a year before the attack.
Stana and another man were stopped near Mr Zeraati’s home after a neighbour called police over concerns about two men acting suspiciously in a communal garden. But it was only when the investigation began that police realised the significance of that encounter.
Iran International was based in Chiswick until February 2023, when threats made against the network, its employees and their families led to it relocating temporarily to Washington DC.
The Met Police says it continues to work closely with various Persian-language media groups, as well as people and other organisations based in the UK.
Officers provide them with appropriate safety and security advice and support in relation to threats projected into the UK from Iran.
