A British court on Friday convicted two Romanian men of stabbing a journalist working for a Persian-speaking media organization in… LondonThe prosecution said that the defendants worked for the government Iran.
Boria Zaratevokolayi, known as Boria Zarate, a British journalist of Iranian origin working for Iran International, was stabbed three times in the leg near his home in southwest London in March 2024.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the jury at the start of the trial last month that Zrate was targeted by three men. He added that they carried out “a pre-planned attack, preceded by reconnaissance, and commissioned by a third party working for the Iranian state.”
Journalist Boria Zarate (Iran International)
Iran denied any connection to the matter. The defendants, Nandito Badia (21 years old) and George Stana (25 years old), pleaded not guilty to the charge of intentional harm, but Woolwich Crown Court in London convicted them.
The authorities arrested the third accused, David Andre V Romania But that trial did not include him.
Atkinson told the jury that posters with pictures of journalists, including Zarate, spread in Tehran in 2022 under the title “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”
The Iran International channel has been targeted before. The authorities charged a Greek national last month with monitoring and tracking one of its journalists, and three men were charged in April with trying to burn down offices linked to the channel in northwest London.
A spokesman for Volant Media, which owns Iran International, welcomed the convictions and said in a statement that the channel’s journalists were “subject to an ongoing campaign of intimidation” from Iran.
