The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has welcomed a UK court's decision to convict two Romanian men for the stabbing of Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati, an attack prosecutors said was ordered by the Iranian state.
Attack Details and Conviction
Zeraati, a prominent presenter for the Persian-language broadcaster, was stabbed three times in the leg near his southwest London home on March 29, 2024, and was hospitalized for several weeks. His attackers fled the UK immediately after the incident. On June 10, 2026, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Both had denied the charges and will be sentenced on July 3. A third suspect, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but could not be extradited to the UK.
Prosecution's Case
Prosecutors told the jury the assault was a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance and ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state. Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said the defendants were not acting on impulse but were recruited, funded, and directed to carry out violence. He added that the convictions highlighted the seriousness of an offence designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence.
CPJ's Response
CPJ Europe and Central Asia Director Fiona O'Brien described the evidence presented in the trial as deeply chilling, showing the level of planning and extended surveillance that preceded the stabbing. She called it a targeted, deliberate, and funded attack. While welcoming the convictions, O'Brien stressed that those who ordered the attack must also be held accountable. She warned that the threat to Iranian journalists in the UK has only risen since 2024 and called on the British government to strengthen its response to transnational repression.
Iran's Denial and Related Cases
The trial judge has yet to formally determine whether the attack was linked to Iran. Mehdi Hosseini Matin, who headed Iran's diplomatic mission to the UK at the time, has consistently denied any Iranian involvement. This case is one of several targeting Iranian journalists in the UK. A Greek national accused of spying on a UK-based journalist from the broadcaster is due to stand trial on June 19. In 2023, a Chechen-born Austrian national was convicted of conducting surveillance on Iran International's premises and sentenced to three years and six months in jail. In February 2024, before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, exiled Iranian journalists working for the BBC warned that their movements were being closely monitored by Iranian authorities, and that their families back home were being interrogated and persecuted because of their reporting.
