LONDON (AP) — Two Romanian men were sentenced Friday to eight and 12 years in prison over the stabbing of a journalist from a Persian-language television station, an attack the judge said was carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at London-based Iran International, was stabbed in the leg in March 2024 outside his home in the Wimbledon area of London.
Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were found guilty by a jury last month of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said the “evidence overwhelmingly points” to the attack being carried out on behalf of the Iranian authorities.
“I am sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power,” she said during a sentencing hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court
U.K. security officials claim Iran is behind a growing number of plots on British soil in which criminal proxies have targeted opposition media outlets and the Jewish community.
The satellite news channel Iran International has previously received threats due to coverage critical of Iran’s theocratic government. Zeraati was a high-profile face on the channel, and prosecutors said a billboard of his face had been seen in the Iranian capital with a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” message.
In 2023 the broadcaster temporarily moved to studios in Washington, D.C., after what it described as an escalation of “state-backed threats from Iran.” The station later resumed operations at a new location in London.
Police said former professional soccer player Badea and another man attacked Zeraati before fleeing in a getaway car driven by Stana and then flying out of the country from Heathrow Airport. Badea and Stana were arrested in Romania in December 2024 and extradited to the U.K. The third suspect, David Andrei, is the subject of criminal proceedings in Romania.
The judge said that Stana should have known that the “targeted and serious” attack was on behalf of Iran and gave him a 12-year sentence. Badea, who was involved in the conspiracy for less time, was handed eight years’ imprisonment.
Iran’s senior diplomat in the U.K. has denied Tehran was behind the attack.
Zeraati recovered from the attack and returned to work but said in a victim impact statement that the incident had left him “scared and anxious” and he had to relocate abroad “for fear of any reprisals.”
Chief Superintendent Kris Wright of Counter Terrorism Policing London said “it was our case that this targeted and violent attack on a journalist was carried out on behalf of the Iranian regime, and the judge agreed with that assessment of the evidence.
“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,” he said.
The head of Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said in October that more than 20 “potentially lethal Iran-backed plots” had been disrupted in the previous 12 months.
An Iranian proxy group has claimed credit for a recent string of suspected antisemitic attacks that have included stabbings and attempted fire bombings at synagogues.
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