On 12 November, two Iranian nationals were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service by supervising persons in the United Kingdom. The verdict was handed down in Woolwich Crown Court, London, after six weeks of trial. The sentences will be handed down on 17 December at the Old Bailey.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, were found guilty under the British National Security Act of 2023. A third defendant, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was acquitted of all charges.
Separate verdicts for both men
Sepahvand was also convicted of preparatory acts aimed at committing serious violence. Manesh was acquitted of the separate charge of preparing for violence by other persons. Their criminal responsibility is therefore not limited to an identical verdict on all charges.
According to the prosecution, Sepahvand acknowledged the acts of surveillance, but claimed to have acted under duress, for fear of the consequences of a refusal. Manesh claimed that the photographs were taken as part of a housing search, says the police.
Monitoring between 2024 and 2025
The Metropolitan Police located open source tracking, surveillance and search between August 2024 and March 2025. The target included two journalists from a Persian-language channel critical of the Iranian government, a lawyer working for UK Lawyers for Israel and an audiovisual production professional.
The investigators exploited 534 gigabytes of data, including messages, videos, photographs and voice notes. A significant part had to be translated from Persian. The documents found included information on the workplace and vehicles of the monitored persons.
The prosecutor describes Sepahvand as the main contact person in Iran, while Manesh transmitted images and information to him. Police connect these contacts to the Revolutionary Guards. The three men were arrested on 3 May 2025.
The penalty will be set in December
In the evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office there is a message in which Sepahvand demanded 150,000 pounds to kill a target. The British authorities believe that the arrests prevented violence. That assessment does not mean that an attack actually took place in this case.
The trial thus results in two convictions, but also in acquittals which the verdict requires to distinguish. The hearing on 17 December will determine the penalties imposed on the two convicted men; No prison term has yet been announced in the press releases of the prosecution and the police.
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