OMM Newsroom
Two Iranian nationals have been found guilty of spying for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), police said Thursday, according to Anadolu Agency.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Manesh, 46, were convicted after an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing London, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Following a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, they were found guilty of conduct “likely to assist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”.
Sepahvand was also convicted of surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research intended to facilitate acts of serious violence against a person in the UK, police said. The targets included two journalists, a lawyer and a media production professional.
Manesh helped Sepahvand with the surveillance but was found not guilty of a charge under Section 18 of the National Security Act. The charge alleged that he carried out the activity “with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the UK, would be committed by others.”
“Following the arrests, the investigation team worked diligently and quickly to translate into English thousands of messages in Farsi and then used mobile phone cell site data to build a compelling record of the surveillance,” Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said in the statement.
Police said the surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research took place between August 2024 and March 2025.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that Counter Terrorism Policing London officers found briefing documents on the cellphones of three men, including details about the surveillance targets.
