George Stana was sentenced to 12 years and Nadita Badea to 8 years. Photo: British police

Romanians George Stana and Nandito Badea were sentenced to 12 and eight years’ imprisonment respectively for the attempted murder of Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati in March 2024. The judge said that the Iranian regime was behind the attack. With this verdict, the United Kingdom is sending a message that political assassinations on British soil will not be tolerated. The Iranian ambassador has been summoned.

What is unusual in this case is that the newspaper Zeraati worked for, Iran International, is financed by Saudi Arabia.

Posters bearing photographs of specific journalists and the words “Wanted. Dead or Alive” have been displayed in Tehran.

The case reinforces allegations that Iran conducts terrorism abroad. Iran was behind the attempted assassination of William Nygaard in Oslo in October 1993, but the Norwegian authorities never dared to complete the investigation.

Pouria Zeraati works for Iran International, which writes:

The judge agreed with the prosecution’s submissions and assessment that this was a state-sponsored attack, concluding that the evidence overwhelmingly supported the conclusion that the attack was carried out in the interests of, and on behalf of, the Iranian state, according to a police statement.

“The judge found that the ‘foreign power condition’ under Section 31 of the National Security Act was satisfied in Stana’s case because of the extensive planning and his prolonged involvement in the plot, indicating that he knew, or at the very least ought to have known, of the connection to the Iranian state,” the statement said.

“The condition was not considered to have been satisfied in Badea’s case, as he was unaware of the connection to Iran as the motive behind the attack.”

Britain’s Security Minister Angela Eagle said the “abhorrent” attack on Zeraati was “carried out on behalf of Iran before both men cowardly fled the country.”

“These sentences send a clear message: anyone acting on behalf of a foreign state to commit crimes in the United Kingdom will be identified, prosecuted and punished,” she said.

Eagle added that Britain takes the threat posed by Iran “extremely seriously” and pledged that the United Kingdom would “continue to hold the regime to account.”

From timesofisrael.com

Pouria Zaratifoukolaei, known as Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin working for Iran International, was stabbed three times in the leg in an attack near his home in Wimbledon, south-west London, in March 2024.

At the opening of the trial of two of the three men accused of carrying out the stabbing, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said they had targeted Zeraati, whose Saudi-funded television employer is critical of the Iranian government and has been designated a terrorist organisation by Tehran.

“This was not a robbery, not a fight that got out of hand. It was deliberate, planned violence intended to achieve exactly what it did, namely serious injury to the target,” Atkinson told Woolwich Crown Court in London.

They “carried out a planned attack prepared through reconnaissance and ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state,” the prosecutor said.

The prosecution alleges that a group of three men attacked Pouria Zeraati, from the opposition outlet Iran International, in March 2024 and inflicted serious injuries upon him; Tehran denies any involvement.

Atkinson said Zeraati was an “obvious and readily identifiable target for violence carried out by proxies” acting on behalf of Iran. He said that in November 2022 posters had been put up in Tehran featuring photographs of journalists, including Zeraati, under the headline “Wanted: Dead or Alive”.

“In recent years, since 2005, the Islamic Republic has relied less on its own agents and increasingly used proxies such as criminal gangs to carry out threats of violence on its behalf,” Atkinson said.

“This has included attacks on individuals in this country who have been subjected to Iranian intimidation and, in effect, terrorism.”

Atkinson said Zeraati had been subjected to “extensive reconnaissance”, and that Stana had been arrested a year earlier in the garden of his flat together with another man while in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.

On the day of the attack, Badea and Andrei confronted Zeraati as he crossed the street from his home to his car, the prosecutor said. Andrei restrained him while Badea stabbed him in the upper thigh before they fled in a getaway car driven by Stana, he added.

The men, who were motivated by money, abandoned the car and some clothing before taking a taxi to Heathrow Airport, from where they flew to Geneva, Atkinson said.

The trial, which is expected to last more than two weeks, continues.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/romanians-stabbed-iranian-journalist-in-london-at-behest-of-tehran-uk-court-told/