Iranian journalist describes London stabbing by 'men working for Iran'

An Iranian journalist based in London has described how he was stabbed in the thigh in a "violent" and "very frightening" attack outside his London home by men accused of working for Iran.

Pouria Zeraati - a journalist and presenter at Iran International, a Persian language TV channel which is not supportive of the Iranian government - told a court he used a builder's utility belt to stop the bleeding.

Two Romanian men are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court accused of the knife attack on 29 March 2024.

George Stana, 25 and Nandito Badea, 21 have both denied charges of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and unlawful wounding.

The prosecution allege Stana and Badea flew in from Romania to carry out the attack as paid proxies working for the Iranian state.

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Zeraati described going to his car which was parked near his home in Wimbledon when a man approached him to ask for "£3 change".

He told the court that he was then "grabbed very firmly by a second person" in a way which meant he could not move his arms.

Then, Zeraati said, "the first person took out a knife from his pocket".

"After that, the only thing I was focused on was the knife."

"He started stabbing the back of my right thigh very quickly. All the time, he was looking me in the eye."

He said the men then ran away "very fast" in the direction of Wimbledon Common.

"I noticed nothing had been stolen," Zeraati added.

"At the moment it clicked… it is not a robbery.

"I realised this might relate to the threats I had been receiving."

Zeraati said that when he realised he was bleeding heavily he called 999, and a nearby construction worker helped him to stop the bleeding with a "utility belt".

He told the jury the attack was "violent", "very frightening" and "very shocking".

Zeraati was later taken to hospital, where he was found to have three stab wounds in his upper thigh.

The prosecution said the first man Zeraati saw was Nandito Badea - whose identity Badea's barrister said was "not disputed".

The second man, according to the prosecution, was David Andrei - who is not on trial. The jury has been told he is still in Romania.

The two men are then said to have run to a waiting Mazda, driven by George Stana.

"As soon as they got into the car, it moved off at considerable speed even before the doors of it were closed," Duncan Atkinson KC said.

The three men then allegedly dumped their car and got a taxi to Heathrow Airport, where they took a flight to Geneva.

Atkinson said they "had fled not just the scene of the attack, but had fled the country".

He continued: "The prosecution case is that these defendants, together with Mr Andrei, were recruited to undertake a proxy attack on Mr Zeraati on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The prosecution told the jury that reconnaissance of Zeraati's Wimbledon address had started in March 2023, a year before the attack.

On 1 March 2023, Zeraati's wife Oldouz Rezvani filmed two men wearing white gloves and blue surgical masks entering the communal garden of their block of flats.

When the men were stopped by police, one of them was carrying a bag with a cricket bat and a hockey stick.

The other man was carrying a pair of scissors and £2,140 in cash. The prosecution said that man was George Stana.

Further reconnaissance of the flat is said to have happened a year later, in February and March 2024.

Atkinson said: "The confrontation with Mr Zeraati that then took place was far from random, accidental or unplanned.

"They had not devoted so much time to surveillance for a robbery, but for the targeted knife attack that in fact then happened."

CCTV from the morning of 29 March 2024 shows Badea, Stana and Andrei leaving their hotel and driving to Zeraati's road. The men then hung around the area for three hours.

"Mr Badea and Mr Andrei were waiting for a sighting of their intended victim, whilst Mr Stana waited in the car, ready to drive them away once the deed was done," Atkinson said.

An eyewitness later told police one of the men "had the appearance of a spy".

The jury heard that Zeraati's wife had herself been threatened in November 2022.

She told police that two men on a motorbike rode up to her near her upmarket gym in Chelsea. Both were dressed all in black.

Speaking in the Persian language Farsi, one of the men said "your husband is our enemy" and "we are going to kill you" before driving away.

In a statement read to the court, Oldouz Rezvani said: "It was an incredibly scary situation. I just wanted to get to the gym to get away from there."

Stana and Badea have both denied charges of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and unlawful wounding.

The trial at Woolwich Crown Court is expected to last up to four weeks.