Two men have been convicted of spying for Iran after carrying out surveillance on journalists and others in London.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, of St John’s Wood, and Farhad Manesh, 46, of Kensal Rise, were found guilty of engaging in conduct likely to assist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
Sepahvand was also found guilty of a second offence — carrying out surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research with the intention that serious violence would be committed against a person in the UK. Manesh helped him with the surveillance but was cleared of a charge under the National Security Act of doing so with the intention that serious violence would be committed by others.
The surveillance took place between August 2024 and March 2025. Its targets were two journalists working for the broadcaster Iran International, a lawyer working for UK Lawyers for Israel, and a media production professional.
The court heard that Sepahvand took a leading role, passing surveillance instructions on to Manesh and frequently messaging phone numbers in Iran belonging to people linked to the IRGC. In messages about one of the targets, he spoke of “finishing him off”.
He was partly motivated by the promise of £150,000 from his contacts in the IRGC, the court heard. He also expected them to “fix” a conviction for theft he had received in Iran. In one voice note, he said he had been promised the conviction would be “sorted out” and he would be paid £150,000, adding that “if they put money in his hands” he would “do it”.
Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) London officers found briefing documents on the mobile phones of the three men, setting out details of the surveillance targets — including photographs of them, the addresses where they worked, the make and colour of the car they drove, and even the names of their pets. Officers sifted through 534 GB of data, and messages and audio had to be translated from Farsi. Mobile phone cell site data was used to build the record of the surveillance.
Sepahvand, Manesh and a third man, Shapoor Noori, 57, of Ealing, were all arrested at their home addresses on 3 May 2025. Sepahvand admitted he had carried out the surveillance on behalf of the IRGC, but said he had done so under duress. Manesh said the surveillance images had been taken because he was looking for somewhere new to live. Noori, who was on trial for the same charges as Manesh, was found not guilty by the jury.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said: “It is clear the arrests of these two men by Counter Terrorism Policing officers prevented serious violence from being inflicted on one or more individuals in the UK.”
She added: “The activity laid out in this case reflects a pattern of Iran targeting Persian language media in the UK, particularly Iran International. Indeed, this is the fourth case in recent years involving direct threat to Iran International journalists and we are working hard to keep them safe.”
Evans also warned that the threat from hostile states to the UK is increasing, and said Iran continues to adapt its approach to using “proxies”. “People are often tasked via social media with the promise of large amounts of money, as seen in this case,” she said. “However, the proxy takes on all the risk and will often only receive a fraction, if any, of the promised financial reward.”
Sepahvand and Manesh will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 17 December. No sentence has yet been passed.
The case is the latest in a series of Iran-linked cases to come before London courts. Johannes Natland was jailed for 20 years over an Iran-linked murder plot, while two Westminster men were re-arrested over a suspected Iranian link to a plot involving RAF Fairford.
