London stabbing of journalist ordered by third party acting for Iran, court told

The stabbing of a journalist in London was a planned attack ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state, a court has heard. Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin had worked for Iran International, a Farsi-language dissident Farsi-language broadcaster, when he was stabbed in the leg outside of his west London home in 2024. Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, from Romania, sat with their heads bent towards interpreters as Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuteing, opened the trial on Monday in London. Both deny charges of wounding with intent and unlawful wounding. A third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but is not involved in the trial. “This was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, rather it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, that is serious injury to its target,” Atkinson told the court. He said they had deliberately targeted Zeraati, whose channel’s opposition coverage and Saudi backing led Tehran to designate it as a terrorist organisation in 2022. They had committed a “planned attack preceded by reconnaissance which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state” and intended to cause Zeraati “really serious harm”, he said. The Iranian chargé d’affaires in the UK, who serves as the head of the country’s diplomatic mission, has previously denied any link between Tehran and the attack on Zeraati. …