{"id":121164,"date":"2026-05-19T12:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/121164\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:28:12","slug":"iranian-journalist-stabbed-outside-london-home-in-planned-attack-linked-to-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/121164\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian journalist stabbed outside London home in \u2018planned attack\u2019 linked to Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An Iranian journalist was stabbed outside his London home in what has been described as a targeted operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pouria Zeraati, who works for the Persian-language broadcaster Iran International, was attacked in Wimbledon, south-west London, in March 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.london-now.co.uk\/news\/26119888.major-road-north-london-sealed-off-overnight-police-incident\/?ref=ed_direct\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:attack;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;attack&quot;}\" class=\"link \">attack<\/a> is believed to have been ordered by the Iranian regime and carried out by hired criminals acting as proxies, according to the prosecution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting at Woolwich Crown Court, said: &#8220;A planned attack preceded by reconnaissance and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">READ MORE:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;This was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, serious injury to its target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, have denied <a href=\"https:\/\/www.london-now.co.uk\/news\/26119878.four-teenagers-arrested-man-stabbed-high-street\/?ref=ed_direct\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:charges;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;charges&quot;}\" class=\"link \">charges<\/a> of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and wounding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A third man, David Andrei, is alleged to have been part of the attack but is not on trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Atkinson told the court that Mr Zeraati was stabbed three times in the leg while heading to his car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">One of the attackers grabbed him and held him firmly while the other carried out the stabbing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The assailants fled in a waiting car, which was later abandoned along with some of their clothing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The prosecution argues the men were acting on behalf of individuals linked to the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Atkinson described Mr Zeraati as &#8220;an obvious and readily identifiable target&#8221; due to his high-profile work with Iran International, a broadcaster critical of the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The court heard that Iran International was forced to temporarily relocate from Chiswick to Washington DC<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This followed threats against its staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Zeraati\u2019s photo appeared on a &#8220;Wanted: dead or alive&#8221; poster in Tehran in November 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Following the attack, the suspects are believed to have travelled to Heathrow and fled the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mr Atkinson said: &#8220;Once they had done what they had gone to Wimbledon to do, they made good their escape.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The court is expected to hear evidence about the Islamic Republic\u2019s history of targeting dissidents abroad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A prosecution expert is expected to testify that Iran has increasingly relied on criminal gangs to carry out such attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Iranian journalist was stabbed outside his London home in what has been described as a targeted operation.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[41399,34,3520,41396,3591,1178,41397,41395,4013,69,41398],"class_list":["post-121164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tehran","tag-duncan-atkinson-kc","tag-iran","tag-iran-international","tag-iranian-journalist","tag-iranian-regime","tag-london","tag-mr-atkinson","tag-pouria-zeraati","tag-target","tag-tehran","tag-woolwich-crown-court"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116601245385275937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}