British prosecutors said on Monday that a team of Romanian men who carried out a 2024 knife attack on Iran International TV presenter Pouria Zeraati in London were acting as proxies for Iran.
Zeraati was stabbed three times in the leg near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London, in late March 2024. He was discharged from the hospital two days later.
Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were arrested in Romania in connection with the attack, and were extradited to Britain on December 17, 2024. They were later charged with allegedly “wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm", a charge they denied at a preliminary hearing in London last year.
On Monday, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told Woolwich Crown Court that “this was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, that is serious injury to its target."
They had "committed a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state," he added.
Iran has denied any involvement in the incident.
Atkinson said Zeraati was an “obvious and readily identifiable target for violence” by proxies acting for Iran.
He said posters had been put up in Tehran in November 2022 featuring pictures of journalists including Zeraati under the heading “Wanted: dead or alive.”
Use of criminal gangs
“In recent years, since 2005, the Islamic Republic has turned less to its own operatives and increasingly to use proxies such as criminal gangs to meet their threatened violence on their behalf,” Atkinson said.
“That has included attacks on persons in this country who have become targets of Iranian intimidation and, effectively, terror,” he added.
Atkinson said Zeraati had been subjected to “extensive reconnaissance.”
He said Stana had been arrested a year earlier in the garden of Zeraati’s apartment with another man while in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.
On the day of the attack, Badea and Andrei confronted Zeraati as he crossed the street from his home to his car, Atkinson said. Andrei held him while Badea stabbed him at the top of his thigh before they fled to a getaway car driven by Stana, the prosecutor added.
The men, who were motivated by money, dumped the car and some clothing before taking a taxi to Heathrow Airport and flying to Geneva, Atkinson said.
A third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but is not involved in the trial.
The trial which began on Monday is expected to last more than two weeks.
In a separate incident last month, three defendants were charged over an alleged arson incident near Iran International’s studios in northwest London, with their trial scheduled to begin on January 25, 2027, at the Central Criminal Court.
In a statement, Iran International said the attack highlights increasing pressure on its journalists and their families, particularly following the recent war involving Iran.
The broadcaster said its staff and their relatives have faced threats and harassment, describing the situation as an effort to silence independent reporting.
