Pouria Zeraati, a journalist for the Farsi-language dissident broadcaster Iran International, was stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon by men acting as proxies for the Iranian regime, Woolwich Crown Court has heard.
The Court’s Allegations
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the jury that the attack was “a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”. He said the two defendants, Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were the “hired help” who were on a mission to cause Mr Zeraati “really serious harm”. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and unlawful wounding.
A third man, David Andrei, is alleged to have been part of the team but is not part of the current trial. Stana’s role, the court heard, was that of the getaway driver. The trio spent “a significant period of time” in the area before the attack; passers-by thought they were waiting for a taxi.
The Attack
On the day of the stabbing in March 2024, Mr Zeraati was walking to his car when Badea approached him and asked for money. Mr Zeraati noticed Badea look towards Andrei, who then grabbed him with a strong grip. Mr Zeraati saw Badea produce a knife from his pocket and stab him three times in the thigh near his buttock. The two attackers then ran to a car driven by Stana, who drove them away.
The car, a Mazda, was later dumped along with clothing – including Badea’s distinctive hooded top and Stana’s green jumper – before the three men took a taxi to Heathrow Airport and flew to Geneva. They had stayed at a hotel in West Brompton the night before the assault. Badea and Stana were arrested in Romania and extradited to Britain in December 2024.
The prosecution said the attack was preceded by reconnaissance. Stana had reportedly been arrested a year earlier in the garden of Mr Zeraati’s apartment complex, in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.
Mr Zeraati was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and discharged from hospital two days later. He has since moved abroad to a safer location.
Iran’s Use of Proxies and the Motive
The prosecution’s case centres on the alleged motivation behind the attack. Mr Atkinson told the court that the targeting of Mr Zeraati and the use of proxies “provides a clear context and explanation for the attack… and the motivation of those involved”. He said it was “no robbery, no fight that got out of control” but “deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did – serious injury to its target”.
Mr Zeraati works for Iran International, a broadcaster that is critical of the Islamic Republic and has been designated a “terrorist organisation” by the Iranian government. The regime has branded the network “a network of spies”. In November 2022, posters featuring Mr Zeraati and other Iran International journalists were put up in Tehran with the caption “Wanted: dead or alive”.
The court heard that Iran International, with its liberal funding and links to Saudi Arabia, had come under attack because of its support for opposition groups and criticism of the Islamic Republic. The broadcaster was based in Chiswick until February 2023, when threats against the network, its employees and their families forced it to relocate temporarily to Washington DC. London’s Metropolitan Police had warned of “imminent and credible threats to the lives of their journalists”. The channel has since resumed broadcasting from new, secure studios in North London.
Mr Atkinson said the jury will hear evidence from a prosecution expert that after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, an “autocratic” and “more paranoid and security-driven” Islamic Republic emerged, with a prominent role for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The expert is expected to tell the jury that “in terms of modus operandi, the Islamic Republic turned less to its own operatives and increasingly used proxies in the form of criminal gangs”. This strategy, the prosecution argues, allows the regime to maintain plausible deniability while carrying out violent acts abroad.
The expert will add that “the Islamic Republic has a long tradition of assassinating and murdering dissidents abroad, at times using their own agents and on other occasions using proxies and ideological fellow travellers”. Mr Atkinson noted that Mr Zeraati was “an obvious and readily identifiable target for violence to be inflicted by proxies acting for the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The broader pattern of transnational repression includes previous threats: in October 2022, IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami warned Iran International, “Watch out we’re coming for you”. In November 2022, two senior Iran International staff in London were moved to safety after police warned of an immediate risk to their lives. In March 2025, two men were convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. UN experts have expressed alarm over credible threats to the lives and safety of 45 Iran International journalists and staff, and 315 of their family members in seven countries. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for thorough investigations into attacks on Iranian journalists.
Mr Zeraati, who was born in Babolsar, Iran, and moved to the UK to study mechanical engineering at Brunel University London, began his journalism career at the Manoto network before joining Iran International in 2020 as a producer and presenter. He is married to Oldouz Rezvani. Despite the attack, he has said, “the show must go on.”
