Two men convicted of wounding journalist in London ‘on orders of Iran’ | Crime
Two men have been found guilty of taking part in a targeted stabbing attack on an Iranian journalist in London, said to have been carried out on behalf of the regime in Tehran.
Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin, was working for the Persian-language opposition broadcaster Iran International when she was stabbed in the leg outside her West London home in 2024.
Jurors on Friday found Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Romanians, who deny the charges, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on July 3. A third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but did not attend the hearing at Woolwich crown court in south-east London.
Zeraati was stabbed three times in the hip in 2024 while walking home to Wimbledon during “a planned attack prior to reconnaissance at the behest of a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”.
Prosecutors said the pair targeted Zeraati, whose channel’s opposition broadcasts and Saudi support led Tehran to designate it as a terrorist organization in 2022. Jurors were shown images of posters in Tehran showing journalists, including Zeraati, reading “Wanted: dead or alive.”
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said all three men acted as a team and carried out “extensive surveillance and reconnaissance” for the attack “at the behest of a third party”.
According to the victim, Badea wielded the knife, while Andrei, who was not at the hearing, was also part of the attack. Stana waited in the getaway car seen on CCTV footage during “hostile reconnaissance” that took place before the attack.
Badea and Stana told police they were surprised by the stabbing and claimed that Andrei was the real culprit. Their assets in the UK were funded by others, including a company called Hemroc Ltd, through Stana’s sister’s bank account. The attackers were seen laughing as they fled the scene, jurors were told.
The head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in the UK has denied any connection between Tehran and the attack on Zeraati.
The war in Iran has expanded to include diaspora communities in the UK, including arson attacks against Iranian dissidents and Jewish people.
This month, another man will go on trial for allegedly working on behalf of Iran to spy on a journalist at Iran International.
In April, London-based Iranian journalists told the Guardian they feared for their lives after a series of threats and physical attacks that they blamed on the Tehran regime determined to silence Persian-language news media.
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter-terrorism section, said the evidence showed Zeraati’s case was “a deliberate, targeted attack on a journalist, carried out after months of planning and surveillance”.
He added: “These convictions reflect the strength of this evidence and the seriousness of an offense designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence.”
