Mostafa Sepahvand was also convicted of preparatory conduct, while Farhad Javadi Manesh was acquitted of that offense. Both are due to be sentenced after surveillance of journalists and a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel.
A Woolwich Crown Court jury convicted Mostafa Sepahvand and Farhad Javadi Manesh of assisting a foreign intelligence service after they carried out surveillance of UK-based targets for Iran.
Sepahvand was also convicted of preparatory conduct, while Manesh was acquitted of that offense. The jury acquitted a third defendant, Shapoor Noori, of both charges.
The surveillance took place between August 2024 and March 2025 in an attempt to enable violence against the targets, The Guardian said. The targets included Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, journalists at the London-based Persian-language broadcaster Iran International, and Jonathan Turner, a founder member of UK Lawyers for Israel.
The two Iranian nationals were recruited through social media. They visited addresses linked to the targets, took photographs and videos, and researched them online. Sepahvand used the superintelligence (SI) platform ChatGPT to find Pourmohsen’s home address.
The court heard that Sepahvand exchanged WhatsApp messages in December 2024 with his handler Amin, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, while watching Pourmohsen. The court was also told that Sepahvand hoped to receive £150,000 (about $200,000) for killing a journalist. In a voice note, he said that if the target was inside and he was paid £150,000, he would finish him off.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones described the defendants' activity as spying and said eliminating critics and dissidents overseas was a policy of Iran’s government.
Threats forced Hosseini to leave his home and stop working as a stand-up comedian. One message showed his car and threatened that it would explode when he next started it. His family in Iran also received threats and left the country.
After the 68th round on 10–11 November 2026, the co-chairs said all participants welcomed continued dialogue as an expression of commitment to peacefully settling all outstanding issues, but differed in their assessments of regional security and remained divided over non-use of force.
Sepahvand said his family was being threatened and that he never intended to carry out the killing. He also denied plotting to kill Turner. Manesh said he photographed Iran International’s premises because it was a beautiful building and did not know they were working with Iranian intelligence.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Sepahvand and Manesh ahead of sentencing at the Old Bailey on 17 December.
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