A trial date has been set for three Iranian nationals who have been charged with spying offences on behalf of Iran’s foreign intelligence service.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday charged with offences under the National Security Act.
The three men all arrived in the UK by irregular means, including by small boats and a lorry, between 2016 and 2022.
Sepahvand, of St John’s Wood, Manesh, of Brent, and Noori, of Ealing, appeared at court by video link and spoke through a Farsi interpreter to confirm their identities.
They are all charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist the Iranian foreign intelligence service between August 14 2024 and February 16 2025.
Sepahvand is also charged with engaging in surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research, intending to commit acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK.
Manesh and Noori are further charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK, would be committed by others.
The defendants were remanded in custody and told by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb that a plea hearing will take place on September 26, and a provisional trial date has been set for October 5 2026.
The three men were arrested on May 3, and five Iranian nationals were also arrested on that day in connection with an entirely separate investigation, with four of them remaining in custody after warrants of further detention were secured.
The four – a 29-year-old man in the Swindon area; a 46-year-old man in west London; a 29-year-old man in the Stockport area; and a 40-year-old man in the Rochdale area – were arrested on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act, contrary to section five of the Terrorism Act 2006.
A fifth, a 24-year-old man in the Manchester area, was detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act before being bailed with conditions to an unspecified date in May.
