Three Iranian dudes have been hit with charges under the National Security Act in the UK, according to the police. The three amigos have been accused of engaging in conduct likely to help out a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024, and February 16, 2025, following an investigation by counter-terror police. The Metropolitan Police spilled the beans that the three men are Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55. The foreign state in question is Iran, the police revealed. All three buddies are set to make an appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday, as per the fuzz.
Sepahvand, who calls St John’s Wood in London home, has also been slapped with charges of “surveillance, reconnaissance, and open-source research” with the intention of “committing serious violence against a person in the UK,” according to a police statement. Meanwhile, Manesh, residing in Kensal Rise, London, and Noori, based in Ealing, London, have also been charged with “engaging in conduct, namely surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK, would be committed by others.” The charges have been described by Commander Dominic Murphy, from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, as “extremely serious.” He mentioned, “Since the men were arrested two weeks ago, detectives have been working around the clock and we have worked closely with colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service to reach this point.”
A fourth Iranian national, aged 31, who got nabbed was let off the hook with no further action on Thursday. In a completely different probe, counter-terror officers nabbed five Iranian dudes, aged between 29 and 46, during raids across various locations in Greater Manchester, London, and Swindon earlier this month. Last October, MI5 director general Ken McCallum spilled the beans that the UK intelligence agency had scrambled to respond to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022, warning of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK.” So, yeah, things are getting pretty wild out there, folks.
