3 alleged Iranian spies on trial in London for targeting Persian journalists in UK

LONDON -- Three Iranian spies conducted surveillance of journalists at a Persian news channel critical of the theocratic government in Tehran and the group plotted to violently harm at least one of their targets, a British prosecutor said Tuesday.Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, went on trial in Woolwich Crown Court on charges of engaging in conduct likely to assist Iran’s foreign intelligence service between August 2024 and March 2025.Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said people criticize Iran “at their peril” and that Iran International, a London-based satellite channel, had “come under particular attack” for its opposition to Tehran. He reminded jurors that former leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the death of Salman Rushdie in 1989 for his novel “The Satanic Verses,” and noted the vicious 2022 stabbing of the author in New York.“In this trial, we are concerned with steps being taken, here in London, on behalf of the Iranian regime, to target journalists and others considered to be hostile to, or even just critical of, the Iranian regime,” Emlyn Jones told jurors. "Their ultimate objective was that one or perhaps more than one of ...